By Eugene Scott, The Fix, Analysis, March 21, 2018<\/p>\n
The conversation about President Trump’s perceived lack of respect for women appears to have shifted to displays of masculinity.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0GOP is struggling<\/a> with women voters, the party’s chairwoman, Ronna\u00a0McDaniel, admitted. While some of those difficulties may be because the\u00a0party leader faces\u00a0about a dozen\u00a0allegations of sexual misconduct and allegations of affairs with a porn star and Playboy model, the fact that some women haven’t seen fruit from Trump’s economic campaign promises<\/a> could be a factor, as well.<\/p>\n Regardless of the reason, former vice president Joe Biden said that if he and Trump were hypothetically in high school\u00a0\u2014 both men are in their early 70s\u00a0\u2014 he would\u00a0physically assault\u00a0Trump if he disrespected women.<\/p>\n \u201cA guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘I can grab a woman anywhere, and she likes it,'” Biden said<\/a> at an anti-sexual-assault rally at the University of Miami. \u201cThey asked me if I\u2019d like to debate this gentleman, and I said ‘no.’ I said, ‘If we were in high school, I\u2019d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.’\u201d<\/p>\n Biden, who is potentially\u00a0eyeing<\/a> a 2020 run against Trump, said any guy who disrespected women was \u201cusually the fattest, ugliest SOB in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n The audience unsurprisingly cheered in response to Biden’s comments. While former first lady Michelle Obama urged Democrats to rise above the Trump-related\u00a0drama by \u201cgoing high,\u201d others on the left view Trump as a bully who needs to be checked by someone comparable. Tough talk from Biden may feed that appetite. But it may not be enough to win him the support of the millions of Americans who\u00a0voted for Trump, even though the president is losing support with women.<\/p>\n While more than\u00a040 percent<\/a>\u00a0of women supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election, only about a third of women\u00a0approve of his job performance now,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to Gallup.\u00a0And perceptions of his respect for women in general are low. Nearly six in 10 of those surveyed say Trump\u00a0does not respect women as much as he does men,\u00a0according\u00a0<\/a>to a Quinnipiac poll.<\/p>\n Biden could face his own set of challenges with women if chooses to run in 2020. He was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 when Anita Hill testified against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas for alleged sexual harassment, and he has\u00a0been criticized for his handling of the aggressive treatment of Hill.\u00a0Biden\u00a0has since apologized.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Time after time, some Trump supporters\u00a0\u2014 even some women\u00a0\u2014 have showed that they\u00a0are not deeply concerned with reports about\u00a0the president’s alleged mistreatment of women. Persuading these\u00a0voters to walk away from Trump and toward Biden would probably take more than sharing how Biden would have responded to Trump in a hypothetical situation in the 1960s.<\/p>\n If anything, Biden’s words could cost him some votes from women who are tired of seeing stereotypical expressions of manhood offered as a solution to the very real problem of sexual assault of women.<\/p>\n In response to Biden’s comments, opinion journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon wrote: “1950 called. It wants Joe Biden and his toxic masculinity back.\u201d<\/p>\n Author and activist\u00a0Ryan Douglas has called\u00a0toxic masculinity \u201ca performance invented to reinforce it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cToxic masculinity is built on two fundamental pillars: sexual conquest and violence \u2014 qualities men regale as manly and virtuous,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in the HuffPost. \u201cHow can we hope to stop violent sexual behavior if violence and sexuality are still considered primary virtues of manhood?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cToo often we allow presentation of strength to overstep strength itself, which can and should be defined beyond the physical. Where true strength is absent, a man overcompensates by showing everyone that no, really, truly, he\u2019s strong \u2014 just look at how he\u2019s proving it. He\u2019s not smiling. He\u2019s flexing and punching things. He\u2019s growing facial hair and purposely deepening his voice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Biden has repeatedly displayed that he understands that the mistreatment of women in America is a real issue. Many voters have expressed a desire for a leader who takes the issue of sexual misconduct against women seriously. But it is still not yet clear whether the 2020 field of candidates will include a man who puts the focus on women\u00a0\u2014 and not their own masculinity \u2014 in seeking a lasting solution to sexual harassment and assault.<\/p>\n\n