Are We Seeing The Rise Of The Toxic Alpha Male?
'Where were you when the manosphere of Donald Trump was cemented into the history books?' That’ll be what future generations will ask us in years to come. They’ll ask us whether we knew not just that more men would vote for Trump than women, but that they’d do so in such vast quantities. They’ll ask us whether these men knew what the US politician had previously said about women, and all of the incremental things he’s done to set women's progress back. But what will we say? Because Trump’s victory is not a surprise. Without the weight of incumbency, he was able to poise himself as the candidate to vote for if you wanted change – the very thing is the US is craving right now. What we cannot fail to ignore is that in voting for Trump — and by doing so, voting against his opponent Kamala Harris, a woman — the US has propelled the indomitable rise of the toxic alpha male into orbit (on a SpaceX plane, no doubt).
In 2020, President Joe Biden beat Trump with male voters under 45; this year, Trump beat Vice-President Kamala Harris with those same voters. Trump has enjoyed strong support from white men in the last three elections, but this year he also made gains among Latino and Black men (according to CNN's exit poll, Trump won 55% of Latino men's votes and 21% of Black men's).
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Energising men was a key and critical part of his campaign. One 2021 study found that a leading predictor of support for Trump – over party affiliation, gender, race and education level – was belief in 'hegemonic masculinity', defined as believing that men should be in positions of power, be 'mentally, physically, and emotionally tough', and reject anything considered feminine or gay. It's believed that Trump engaged with male content creators at the behest of his 18-year-old son, Barron, who advised his father about which podcasts and creators were worth working with. Just 10 days before the election, Trump appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast and spoke for three hours. Rogan's podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, is the most listened-to podcast in the world and 81% of his audience is male. Trump's interview with Rogan, who is know to have refused the Covid-19 vaccine during the pandemic and has promoted the carnivore diet, has been watched 46million times on YouTube. Spotify quietly removed previous episodes of Rogan's podcast after it emerged that he'd said how Angelina Jolie probably has 'crazy p***y,' and how Jeff Bezos’s girlfriend Lauren Sanchez is an 'alpha predator female' whose 'p**s p**s is probably incredible.' However, Rogan wasn't the only male podcaster Trump engaged with. Logan Paul's interview with Trump has amassed nearly 7 million views, and Theo Von's clip of him discussing sobriety with Trump has 14 million. Both have predominantly male audiences.
Trump's campaign was also supported by the richest man in the world and the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), Elon Musk, who also appeared on Rogan's podcast the day before the election. Since taking over X in 2022, Musk has removed Trump's ban on the platform and reinstated other users' profiles who were previously banned too. Data has previously found that 60% of X users are male and that, prior to the election, conservative content on the platform was being amplified more than liberal content was. In September 2024, the billionaire — whose wealth increased by $26.5billion (£20 billion) in the wake of Trump's election — reposted a tweet from 'Autism Capital' that suggested that 'women and low T men' are not able to think freely because they 'can’t defend themselves physically'. The only people who can think freely are 'high T alpha males and aneurotypical people... this is why a Republic of high status males is best for decision making. Democratic, but a democracy only for those who are free to think.' Among the conspiracy theorists whose accounts Musk reinstated was Alex Jones, as well as racist and sexist provocateurs like the white nationalist Nick Fuentes. 'Your body, my choice. Forever,' Fuentes posted on Tuesday night; the phrase has been making rounds on social media since.
And then there's J.D. Vance, Trump's running mate and the Vice President-to-be, whose previous comments in 2021 to Tucker Carlson about leading Democrats being 'a bunch of childless cat ladies', caused a furore when they resurfaced earlier this year. In response, a spokesperson for Harris said Vance and Trump were 'not pro-family, they are anti-women', adding: 'Women are paying attention – and will use their power at the polls.' What's heartbreaking is that women didn't use their power at the polls (Harris had the advantage among women, winning 53% to Trump’s 46%, but that margin was somewhat narrower than Biden’s). At least, those who did and showed their support for Harris did so in smaller numbers than her Democratic predecessors. While Hillary Clinton won women by 13 points in 2016 and Joe Biden by 15 in 2020, Harris secured them by just 10 points, CNN found.
The slow but steady return of Trump has happened against the backdrop of the increasingly worrying rise of 'tradwives' and the seemingly incremental regression of female equality. 'A tradwife (short for traditional wife) is a woman,' typically a conservative Christian, 'who prefers to take a traditional or ultra-traditional role in marriage, including the belief that a woman’s place is in the home,' according to one of the genre’s more popular content creators. Not only has the tradwife revival nurtured the popularity of 'stay at home' girlfriends on TikTok — the #Life As A Stay at Home Girlfriend has almost 40 million posts — but #CleanTok, where predominantly stay at home female creators clean their homes to within an inch of their lives, has amassed 4.8 million posts at the time of writing.
The socially conservative movement's conduit to Trumpism is clear, too. A new study found that #tradwife content's largest audience is actually right-leaning men. 'Media Matters coded and analysed 327 recommended videos after exclusively interacting with tradwife content,' the study says. 'We found TikTok's recommendation algorithm rapidly populated our F.Y.P. (For You page) with conspiracy theory content and fear mongering, which made up nearly one-third of all videos served to the F.Y.P.' After interaction with tradwives, the study found, TikTok’s recommendation algorithm also served up '19 videos featuring extremist right-wing media figures,' such as Jones and Fuentes.
The manosphere is inescapable. It's increasingly becoming the content we consume and the politics that continues to governs our lives. The truth is that masculinity really is fragile, and its fragility results in a whispered anti-female 'violence' at the polls, which the Democrats should've predicted. The Republican Party under Trump has become a carnival of toxic masculinity, how that carnival evolves with almost unfettered power — the Republicans won the Senate and look set to claim the House of Representatives too — and a strong mandate from the electorate almost doesn't bear thinking about. As for making America great again? That remains to be seen.
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