Even before Vice President Kamala Harris took over as the likely Democratic nominee, the 2024 election was shaping up to be a battle of the sexes. Last week's Republican National Convention was deliberately planned as a chest-beating affair that would contrast Donald Trump's macho bona fides with President Biden's more female-friendly, reproductive rights–focused campaign. Big-game hunter Donald Trump Jr. introduced J.D. Vance — a "pro-natalist" who calls women without kids "childless cat ladies" — as Trump's running mate. Dana White, CEO of the testosterone-jacked Ultimate Fighting Championship, got the honor of introducing the GOP's alpha male. "I'm in the tough-guy business," White said of Trump, "and this guy's the toughest, most resilient guy I've ever met." And pro-wrestling star Hulk Hogan praised Trump for surviving his attempted assassination like "a warrior" — before ripping off his T-shirt to reveal a Trump-Vance tank top and hollering "Let Trumpmania run wild, brother!"
Doubling down on hypermasculinity makes for cringeworthy viewing, but it's smart politics. Before this week, polls showed Trump leading Biden in most of the six big swing states, thanks largely to his double-digit lead among men, which was greater than Biden's single-digit lead among women. Trump's pledge to "Make America Great Again," with its implicit promise to restore traditional gender hierarchies, seems to be resonating with younger men especially. In a recent Pew survey, 40 percent of men ages 18 to 49 who support Trump agreed that women's gains in society have come at the expense of men — 11 points higher than among older Trump-supporting men. As young men shift right, young women are going left and are now 15 points more liberal than their male peers. The consequences of this gender chasm will be felt long beyond November. A nation in which men and women view one another as political foes will be one with a lot more lonely, angry people.
This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.
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