Real Locker-room Talk

The title of this article from The Atlantic is titled Masculinity Done Well and Poorly:

In a shirtless locker-room interview yesterday, Miami Dolphins safety Michael Thomas was asked about Trump’s “son-of-a-bitch” condemnation of players protesting state violence.

Thomas first shot back a smile as if trying to brush it off.

Addressing Trump: “It just amazes me that with everything else going on in this world, especially involving the United States, that’s what you’re concerned about, my man?”

Original DVD cover

His tone shifted.

“As a man, as a father, as an African American who’s one of those ‘sons of bitches,’ yeah, I took it personally. But at the same time, it’s bigger than me. I got a daughter. She’s going to have to live in this world. I’m going to do whatever I got to do to make sure she can look at her dad and be like, ‘Hey, you did something. You tried to make a change.’”

Another man’s hand slapped Thomas on the back, and he turned from the cameras in tears.

…snip…

Both Trump and Thomas express themselves in ways consistent with certain codes. One is expressive, compassionate, and magnanimous. One is cold, domineering, and divisive.

…snip…

Last week the president—who was elected on the promise that he had a “really fantastic” plan to “immediately repeal and replace Obamacare”—watched as his fourth attempt at health-care reform was rendered catatonic, universally condemned by every major physician and nursing organization, hospitals, insurance companies, and at least two Republican senators.

That night at a campaign rally in Huntsville, Alabama, Trump spoke of apparently unrelated things:

Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!” You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s going to say, “That guy that disrespects our flag, he’s fired.”

…snip…

[H]e drew cheers for projecting toughness and bravado—for saying his catchphrase, “You’re fired!” The crowd responded well to the shared sense of superiority over the more familiar other: black NFL players who protest the power structure.

…snip…

In all of these statements Trump could reasonably be—and widely is—said to be engaging in racial demagoguery for political gain. Over the weekend he would go on to praise the largely white NHL and NASCAR while calling for black athletes who protest state abuses of power to be fired. He is also quite possibly not so calculating as to consciously weaponize racism and authoritarianism, but is engaging in a sort of demagoguery fueled firstly by his own impulse to gain approval. His code of masculinity dictates that this is done by saying things that incline people to perceive him as a powerful man.

Though this sort of status hinges precariously on the approval of other powerful men. When those men refuse to supplicate and salute the flag that he sees as a proxy for his regime and himself—as those men did in droves this weekend—he does not consider their argument or question himself. He simply feels attacked, and so he hits, like a man.

The author of the article also addresses Twitler’s disregard of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and the NFL in general. It’s very interesting (and infuriating). You should click at the link above and read the whole thing, my dearest Raisinettes.