Michael Keehan
Staff Writer
Let me make something clear: Trump supporters are not inherently bigoted. While the last few months have shown very ugly sides of MAGA rhetoric, as I discussed in another piece two months ago about the cat-eating hoax, there are still many reasons one would’ve voted for Trump, and the last thing I want to do is lump all of his supporters into one reason.
Still, it’s hard to comprehend how America, as a collective nation, chose Trump as their president again. And it’s not the idea of him being president as much as it is the idea of him winning. The Harris campaign, while not perfect, did the best they could with what they had, while the Trump campaign had everything going against it. Criminal charges, national embarrassments, and the fear of an authoritarian presidency looming over the election set the stage for a Harris victory.
But then a massive rightward shift hit America, one no campaign could’ve prepared for. Trying to understand this, I turned to the reactions from online right-wingers and saw multiple of them celebrate the idea of putting women who were at the front of the Harris campaign in their place. It hit me right there that the rightward shift in our country is the result of open misogyny and toxic masculinity.
I know I’d seem like a stereotypical “Social Justice Warrior (SJW)” who hates masculine men and feminine women, but that’s because the term “toxic masculinity” is misleading. It has nothing to do with gender expression, but rather the subjugation of women and enforcement of gender roles. We’ve seen an increase in online influencers promoting an “alpha male” mindset that views women as beneath them and queer people as degenerates.
You might’ve heard of some of these people: Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan, Fresh and Fit. They’re known as the “Manosphere,” and they prey on isolated, impressionable young men who are without active male influences in their lives. They’re less likely to connect to female influences, so the manosphere fills the role of a male influence, taking advantage of a parasocial relationship to feed misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and even racism in some cases.
There’s a lot of variation and disagreement, but no matter what a manosphere influencer may preach, they all share the same goal: gradually ending feminism and reinstating gender roles in society. And gradually it is, as the manosphere has been active since 2014 with GamerGate, where a false claim about game developer Zoe Quinn led to her and many other women in the video game industry being harassed and threatened. While the harassment died quickly, SJWs became a prominent target for young conservatives like Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk, elevating the misogynistic rhetoric of Donald Trump to the White House.
Think about how the two people Trump defeated were both women. It isn’t rocket science to believe that the idea of a woman in the country’s highest office sparks fear and disgust in many men. Tell me, would the country constantly slutshaming women elect one president? And don’t get me started on Elon Musk, who promoted ideas that “women and low t men” can’t think freely as he turned Twitter into a stomping ground for the manosphere to spread monetized lies. Now he’s being considered for Trump’s cabinet.
There are other things that could be responsible. The Great Recession spawned populism on both sides of the political spectrum, while COVID-19 negatively impacted Trump’s 2020 chances and distorted perceptions of his term that helped him in 2024. But the manosphere wins regardless and can continue to gain the widespread sexism in society. It’s a societal issue that the Manosphere benefits from, and anyone on its opposing end needs to counter its influence on society before it becomes stronger.