MASKulinity Live: The US Election

Written By Samantha Nzessi

EPISODE SUMMARY

This week, we’re excited to bring a conversation from NGM Pathways’ live community event to our feed. The good folks at our presenting organization, Next Gen Men, hosted Samantha and Remoy for a Q&A session about the US election. We stop just short of the audience Q&A to maintain privacy of the participants. Tune in!

Remoy and Samantha start out with a shout-out to self-care. It’s been a month since the election and some tough conversations with loved ones may have happened/may be coming up—it’s important to take a moment for ourselves.
  • Therapy is still the greatest thing ever. Remoy shouts out his own therapist and Samantha is excited to return this week.
  • Male loneliness continues to be high—Samantha calls back the mental health conversation they had with resident counselor Justin Lioi this time last year.
Next Gen Men’s new community manager, Charlotte Kinloch, starts out with land acknowledgments. We remember that we are on stolen land both in the US and in Canada, as we start the conversation. 
Charlotte leads us into unpacking the election…
  • Samantha and Remoy point out that many other factors were certainly implicated in Americans’ decision to vote Trump, but gender cannot be ignored.
  • What was  surprising about the PEW findings from the pre-election episode?
    • Right before the election, Juliana Horowitz from PEW Research Center came on the pod and shared Americans’ feelings on men and masculinity. Men’s progress and character traits in men were among the most surprising, particularly given the narratives promoted by the manosphere.
    • As Horowitz shared during that episode, which Samantha brought up again now, not blaming women for men’s lack of progress doesn’t mean that women’s progress is appreciated. This points to a patriarchal perspective prevailing among Americans.

    • Samantha sidebars about why men have made less progress than women in the past few decades. PEW Research Center had a study on that as well…

Remoy places us within a larger international context. Trump wasn’t the only one elected as a result of populist efforts.

  • Faith in education has dropped drastically, and education is viewed as the establishment.
  • How was Trump able to paint himself as a man of the people even though he is a billionaire who rubs elbows with other billionaires? Remoy gives his take.
  • If, as we discovered during our conversation with PEW Center’s Senior Associate Director of Research, Juliana Horowitz, Americans value women’s leadership and “feminine” traits being valuable to leadership, how did Donald Trump emerge as elected leader for this country yet again?
    • Remoy reflects back on his conservative background before he became liberal and how much masculinity is entrenched in American culture history.
    • Samantha points out that messaging around patriarchal leadership is heavily funded by nontraditional sources and funneled to nontraditional information and news sources. A win for the anti-establishment strategy.
    • The manosphere and its spaces also provide something that men have trouble getting elsewhere.
    • Remoy highlights the need for regulation on social media with a clear solution.
How have evolving gender roles impacted the American public?
  • PEW’s research found that Americans don’t blame men’s lack of progress on women’s continued progress, but men are still behind.
  • Remoy brings up the biggest point of all, which is the economy. Many folks who vote conservative cite the economy as their main reason for doing so. This election was no different. 
    • This has impacted men in a real way, challenging the notion that they are providers. And some of their women spouses voted to ensure that their male partners could get better financially.
    • Samantha highlights the ways in which the economy has already been impacted by Trump’s win, but only a few have seen the wins.

  • Talk to us! Did we cover all the points about the election? What would you have added? Our lines are open for any and all communications about masculinity, maskulinitypodcast@gmail.com; @maskulinitypod on Twitter and Instagram.

Referenced on this episode:

COMPANION PIECES:

Shout-out to Charlotte Kinloch for leading this discussion!

Samantha Nzessi https://samanthaln.com
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ENCORE: Hearing the Warriors