Whether it’s Kamala Harris cracking open a Miller beer on late-night TV or Donald Trump — with muscles added — in a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform, the candidates’ are buffing up their macho bona fides to prove they deserve the Oval Office.
This presidential election features a giant-sized gender gap between the two, and Harris is seeking to crack the widening share of males backing Trump. Meanwhile, traditional masculinity is a critical issue for Trump, said Dan Cassino, the Fairleigh Dickinson University pollster who has surveyed the issue.
“People who say they perceive Trump is completely masculine, 84% [of them] say they’re going to support Trump in the upcoming election,” Cassino said.
It’s tougher for Harris, he said, who has to find a middle ground. “Harris has to be seen as both masculine and feminine,” Cassino said. “It’s like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, right? She has to do gender backward — and in high heels. So she has a harder thing to do, but she does seem to be doing it.”
In this election, polls find men more focused on the economy, and Trump has responded with promises of jobs and tax cuts. Trenton lobbyist and online influencer Jeannine LaRue, a Harris supporter, said it’s about gender stereotypes and expectations.
“So I’ve heard some Black ministers say, ‘Come on, there’s too many pantsuits. When are you going to put on a dress?” LaRue said.
She said traditional views persist of the U.S. president as a strong commander-in-chief, where strength equals masculinity … shape opinions among young Black men. “I sit in my barbershop and I listen to some of the brothers sitting around me and they’re like, “Oh, yeah, Trump is on, he’s a straight talker.
“And I asked him the question,” LaRue continued, ‘Are you listening to what he’s saying?’”
Elections typically feature disparities between how men and women vote, and this one is especially pronounced.
Polls show the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade continues to galvanize women voters, with one-third reporting they can’t vote for a candidate who’s not aligned with their views on abortion. Trump projects a tough law-and-order stance, promising to protect women and deport millions of immigrants.
Kelly Dittmar, associate professor of political science at Rutgers-Camden, said Trump’s message is red meat for the MAGA crowds who want to revert to America’s patriarchal past.
Trump is “responding to the male grievance and the white male grievance that has come with the progress of women, with the racial progress we have seen,” Dittmar said.
“Him saying, ‘No, we need to restore these kinds of traditional notions of both gender and the balance of power, including at the presidential level’,” she said. “It’s so divisive that even some husbands and wives say they may not want to disclose their choice on Election Day.”
