Revenge of the Wimp Factor: The Ironies of Proving Manhood in the Democratic Primary

Hi, I'm Hillary Clinton. But tonight, in honor of the WWE, you can call me Hill-Rod. This election is starting to feel a lot like "King of the Ring." The only difference? The last man standing may just be a woman. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, from her opening monologue prior to a World Wrestling Entertainment "joke" match between Clinton and Obama look-alikes.

What has become disturbingly evident in the last few months of the primary campaign is that Hillary Clinton is not merely carrying the torch of the "old politics." She is also the ironic bearer of the old masculinity, a knuckle-dragging version of manhood that is defined in terms of domination. In this view, "the man" is whoever can stick it to the other. It is the one who can eviscerate his or her enemy most savagely and with the least remorse. It is the one on top in a zero-sum world. In this curious mutation of patriarchy, anatomy is not destiny. But being a dick is.

Much is made of the penis. We talk about how to keep it hard, how to make it bigger, and who envies it. The public secret we keep from ourselves -- but at a deep level understand -- is that it is not the penis that matters most. That modest organ is, after all, vulnerable and easily deflated. The phallus is what most men and even some women in a male dominant culture covet, envy, think they possess, fear losing, or try to get back (usually, each of these at different times). In our still patriarchal world, this symbol, in blatant or subtle forms, shows up in our dreams, editorial cartoons, commercials, and political ads. It is often used to represent absolute domination, insensate hardness, omnipotence, unlimited wealth, invulnerability, untrammeled growth, or freedom from all dependency - and sometimes all of these unattainable qualities.

The problem, of course, is that this ancient archetypal monolith of manhood is an illusion. Nobody has one; it only exists if someone sees it. In spite of being an evanescent hallucination, political consultants spend much of their time trying to paint a phallus on their candidate. A line from the Tom Waits song "Step Right Up" could be read as a concise description of what a successful campaign does: "It gives you an erection. It wins the election."

In most electoral contests, the question is often "who's the man?" And the manner in which political manhood gets displayed is tiresomely predictable: macho chest beating, posing with the fetish objects of anxious masculinity (trucks, big machines, and even bigger weapons), humiliating your opponent with castrating insults, calling into question his or her ability to be tough, ruthless, and merciless with the designated enemy of the moment -- in short, phallic strutting. These are the bread and butter performances that keep the 24-hour cable infotainment channels in business, and frequently eclipse the issues of the day.

There is an astonishing irony in Senator Clinton flashing her "Hill-Rod," and striking poses that, in the admiring words of North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, make "Rocky Balboa look like a pansy." During her career as First Lady, Mrs. Clinton was widely reviled by her conservative detractors as a gender outlaw. Being smart, outspoken, a savvy investor, a policy wonk, and a woman who insisted on an egalitarian relationship with her husband, she was seen as a profound threat, a wife who did not know her proper (i.e., subordinate) place.

These sentiments got represented in numerous editorial cartoons that depicted her in male drag, using a men's urinal, and as a riding-crop-wielding dominatrix. Slick Times, a right wing humor magazine, featured jokes about her preferred method of birth control (vasectomy) and the reason she doesn't wear miniskirts ("so her balls won't show"). The cover of the October 1995 issue of Spy Magazine even retouched a photo of her to depict a discernible penile bulge under her clothing. This image accompanied an investigative article on her "dubious investments" that "performed extremely well." The headline, "Hillary's Big Secret," in equating the penis with money, revealed the phallic meaning her powerful financial dealings had for the authors, as well as for many of her conservative male critics.

During this same period images abounded of Bill Clinton as castrated, cross-dressing, feminized, and physically dominated and abused by his powerful wife. Interestingly, once the Monica Lewinsky scandal unfolded, things reversed. He was portrayed in cartoons and late night TV comedy monologues as studly, powerful, and potent. Hillary, now the wounded women standing by her man, was widely depicted in sympathic and stereotypically feminine terms. What may surprise many is that the approval ratings for both the President and the First Lady soared following the scandal. Many citizens, especially men, seemed relieved to see the gender order restored, and the phallus returned to our male leader. But if, unlike the lowly but attached penis, the phallus has a tendency to move around, this can open up opportunities for female politicians to overcome the still lingering impediments of misogynist bigotry. Gender, our cultural experiences tell us, is really only loosely associated with bodies, not tethered to them.

What could not be tolerated in Hillary the political wife turns out to be a significant advantage for Hillary the politician, or so her campaign managers seem to believe. In fact, Senator Clinton appears to have been positioning herself early on to wield the political phallus. Her vote for the Iraq war resolution seems less a mistake based on inaccurate information -- the data was readily available to her antiwar peers in the Senate, not to mention many national security scholars, as well as millions of ordinary Americans -- than a political calculation. She wanted to show her "testicular fortitude," as a supportive labor leader recently gushed at a campaign rally. It's the same reason "fight" has become her favorite verb. Last week she autographed a pair of red boxing gloves at a rally. Perhaps the most disturbing gesture of macho posturing has been her repeated threat to "obliterate" Iran if that nation's leaders attack Israel. Given that the Iranian people are unable to really make their leaders accountable, her threat is not only a genocidal one, but, were she to act on it, would constitute collective punishment.

Hillary Clinton seems not only willing to annihilate Iranians for political gain. She also appears happy to depopulate the Democratic Party in order to ensure her nomination. As I write this, news outlets are revealing her plans for what Thomas Edsall is calling the "nuclear option." In other words, she intends to use her influence on the members of the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee to force the votes that were gathered in the "outlaw" primaries of Florida and Michigan to be counted.

Some may ask a very reasonable feminist question that could challenge this argument: why must toughness, Machiavellianism, combativeness, or even swaggering bellicosity be viewed as masculine? They certainly needn't. But it is, as we have seen, Hillary Clinton herself, along with her surrogates, who have explicitly gendered those traits in the campaign. As the oleaginous Clinton loyalist, James Carville, has said, if Mrs. Clinton gave Obama one of her testicles, "they'd both have two."

What is so interesting and illuminating is that Hillary Clinton is not just engaging in a performance of martial hypermasculinity as a way of shoring up both her phallic and national security credentials. She is also donning the mantel of working class hero, aping every conceivable stereotype of white blue-collar manhood -- from beer swilling to gun toting to preening pugilism -- and, where possible, doing so from the back of a pickup truck. It must be said, however, unlike the many multimillionaire Republican men in power, such as George W. Bush and John McCain, she plays the good ole boy with convincing if increasingly unhinged gusto. Perhaps this is because men in politics so often make the worst male impersonators.

But beyond that, Hillary Clinton has long revealed an intuitive talent for masquerade, an ability to lose herself in whatever role a situation required. Her instincts as a protean politician enabled her to seamlessly shift from feminist intellectual and powerhouse lawyer deriding stay-at-home cookie bakers, to the betrayed housewife still loyal to her man, and beaming with pride over her cookie recipe. She can play the verklempt victim of male critics one moment, and a macho political predator the next. On a dime Senator Clinton can morph from a well informed authority on the nuances of economic policy to a we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-economists anti-intellectualism in response to the near unanimity of expert opinion criticizing her bogus gas tax "holiday" scheme.

Her double masquerade of gender and class has been so compelling to some working class male voters because it taps into a deep vein in the American collective political unconscious that dates from the founding of our nation, and one that Republicans have understood and effectively exploited for decades. In the 1840 presidential campaign, Martin Van Buren said his opponent, William Henry Harrison, was "a man who wore corsets, put cologne on his whiskers, slept on French beds, rode in a British coach, and ate with golden spoons from silver plates." Here in this example of early negative campaigning we have a clear illustration of the link American men have always made between effeminacy and aristocratic manners and privilege. It was, after all, George H. W. Bush's patrician patois and upper class mannerisms that led Newsweek in 1988 to suggest his greatest political vulnerability was "the wimp factor," and thereby coin a term that would become a permanent part of our political lexicon. Not only did this feminine attribution haunt the public career of Bush 41, Bush 43, as many have observed, has struggled to defend against and compensate for this legacy.

More recently, we have the example of Barack Obama, the black candidate raised by a poor single mother, being called an "elitist" because of his grace, equanimity, intellect, dismal bowling performance, and reluctance to completely inhale his Philly cheese-steak. This, along with his willingness to negotiate with enemies, we are told, should lead us to question whether he's man enough to be commander in chief. The Clinton crew, along with their chief ally, John McCain, have made strenuous efforts to define Obama as a cosseted and effeminate toff, whose pretty words only confirm his deficient manhood, and thereby his unfitness to lead the nation. When you think about it, Clinton's complaint against her opponent -- "you always want to talk" -- sounds oddly like the familiar kvetch that so many emotionally constricted sexist husbands direct at their more relational spouses.

In applying the GOP approach to feminizing male opponents, and directing class resentment away from the real elites, Hillary Clinton has gone beyond her more familiar adoption of the ruthless, sociopathic say-anything, dirty tricks politics of her erstwhile Rovian right wing enemies. She is reinforcing the conservative attempt to equate manhood with belligerence and predation. In addition, she is trotting out the well worn but still effective propaganda technique employed by this country's actual ruling oligarchy of wealth -- reducing class to personal style, taste, or the specific products people consume (brie versus Velveeta). Those who actually own or wield control over our shared resources are rendered invisible in this rhetorical sleight of hand.

Barack Obama stands in stark contrast to the attitude of the Clinton campaign. His guiding political ethos has always been one of bridging but not overlooking divisions, while privileging dialogue, debate, and negotiation over conquest. This is not only a new politics. It is a new masculinity, one that is inclusive of those panhuman qualities previously disowned and projected onto women. It remains to be seen if Hillary Clinton, with her Hobbesian hard-on, will succeed in turning the Denver convention into a war of all against all. If so, the life span of the Democratic Party may be nasty, brutish, and short.

Stephen J. Ducat, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist from the San Francisco Bay Area, and has published widely on the psychology of politics. His most recent book is The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity.

Comments

[elizaW]

Alpha Men are attractive to women. It's part of nature. You can debate it. You can deny it. You can develop sub-cultures based on your repudiation of the fact. But you can not change it. And Mother Nature will not go along with your plans even if you try. Yes, much is made of the hard penis and with good reason. It deserves to be celebrated. Take this message and apply it as you wish to the current political situation.

[liseworks]

Nope - Men can learn a thing or two from this, & then maybe not -
Have you considered that Alpha men are attractive mostly to the corresponding Bambi-type women ?
When I was younger, maybe yeah, that was part of the factor, so was nice car, good looking, nice calve muscles, 6-pack & other silly attributes - once you get past that ego-stuff, the romance wears off fast - but as I "grew up", in my 30's & 40's, I've realized that the biggest , most long-lasting attraction has to do with intelligence, great sense of humor, kindness, soul, integrity, emotional stability & a sense of greatness (not the "look at me, I'm great", but that innate low-key "thing" that people admire) : respect -
Come to think of it : Obama's traits. Experiencing mutual respect is the best way to stay attracted-to & attractive for a long time -
Yep, it takes a bit of maturing to discover what is masculine & it ain't no six-pack chest, big talkin', gun totin', big truck drivin', beer drinkin' buffoon ....

[Jasonk]

"...intelligence, great sense of humor, kindness, soul, integrity, emotional stability & a sense of greatness..."

Those are all standard alpha-male traits. It's not all physical. In fact, it is primarily not physical. So you may have "grown up", but you are still attracted to alpha males.

[elizaW]

liseworks

An Alpha male isn't a "gun totin truck drivin" kind of guy. An Alpha Male is a powerful man who is in charge of his world. Bill Clinton is Alpha and always will be. Obama is not. My point is that on a basic DNA level most women are attracted to men who take charge, instead of metrosexuals who spend too much time concerned about their image. Most women want to have babies with Alpha Males - various scientific studies support me on this. I'm no bimbo, no Bambi, as you put it. I'm independent and always have been, some might go so far as to describe me as a feminist. And this is what I know. When you're with a true Alpha Male, the attraction is primal, long-lasting and a whole lot of fun.

[Tasies]

Curious though, that in the political sphere most "alpha" males are limp dicked geeks with alot of power. These geeks aren't doing the bullet catching either. The alpha male is a dying species; having little to do with a suppossed feminization of the male, but rather as a result of evolution and self preservation. Those who set an aggresive alpha agenda require that alpha males do the dying for it. History is full of these macho posturing cowards.

[wmfor]

I recall an interview with a Manhattan prostitute several years ago. Her clients were the big movers and shakers, and she said most of them wanted her to beat and humiliate them.

[wmfor]

"Alpha Men are attractive to women"

Gay men cannot be alpha-males? Get out much?

[JustMyWords]

Well, to give credit where credit was due, elizaW didn't say that alpha men are attracted to women, just that women are attracted to alpha males.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Great article. There's a big difference between toughness and being a bully. Toughness is prevailing trough adversity with dignity and honor. That's exactly what Obama did when he took on the onslaught of attacks from Hillary and the media. Hillary like Bush is a bully and when they come up against someone with true character they inevitably fail. Obama could have been petty and got down in the muck but he stayed above the fray and resisted personal attacks on Hillary's character and indiscretions. McCain was an honorable man in a previously life but once he sold his soul to the right wing he has resorted into the bullying type of name calling and false attacks. Obama will surely show his character versus McCain's new found bully tactics as well.

[Tasies]

In her attempt at becoming a Thatcheresque figure, Hillary has cast aside the strengths of being a woman. Rather than redifining the play book, she has embraced the posturing, chest thumping, male dominated political game.

[liseworks]

Stephen - Great & thought-provoking topic ! Hillary's got it all backward & is trying to emulate what is NOT strong - the strongest males, in my view, are the gentlest , kindest ones - to have true masculinity is to also "be in touch with the best feminine traits, caring, nurturing, humility" - whenever I see or hear a "guy" flexing his "manhood" by being tough, aggressive, bullying, talking tough & mean (think : Sean Hannity whom I'm sure acts out to cover up a small ummm ....) - I see & hear a total pussy, a veritable wimp, someone who "seems" strong outside, but totally insecure inside, because he failed to work from the inside, out. So, yeah, Hillary is trying to be an "old school good ol' boy" - she just doesn't get it.

Lao-Tzu (600 B.C.)

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding.

But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield.

As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard.

This is another paradox : what is soft is strong.

[tedbear]

Absolutely! Lao-Tzu had alot of savy observations about the world. I wonder what he'd think about your using one of them in the 2008 United States Presidential race! Remarkable, huh?!

[Gma11]

LOL!!!!

[EngineerBill]

The sad part of the so called Wimp factor" and "brie vs. Velveeta" is that they are still effective politically. The good news is that Obama can make the case that this is part of the old way of thinking.

[patmancando]

Let's face it Michelle has enough chutzpa and the balls to compensate for any lacking in BO.

[lotuslike]

Brilliant and insightful analysis, Mr. Ducat...thank you!

[SonofLiberty1]

Dr. Dicat.

With all due respect:)

This sounds so....

"NEW AGE" to me, complete with all the Phoniness that can ever be seen or heard about!:(

I however, want to remind you of another fairy tale, one that has much relevance, even today..

"The Emperor's NEW CLOTHES"!

[RRonin]

Just some observations: Obama is metro. I know, 'cause I'm metro. He probably knows what toile is. Obama is probably a Taoist. I know 'cause I'm one. At least I believe he's studied the Tao. This could help him do the nation and the world a lot of good if he wins the Big One. Bill Clinton had an upbringing similar to Obama's: single mom, a strong influence from his grandparents, etc. But Obama grew up to be the kind of person that Clinton always pretended to be.

[egal]

An ability to understand multiple cultures, philosophies, interests, and beliefs? Blasphemy! Next you'll be saying it's bad to start wars just to make money for the mere reason that it is.

[Gma11]

I love Taoism - spent some considerable time in China in 1981 and 1982. A different China than I see today, in many ways. But Taoism is timeless. And, yes, I can imagine Obama as a master of Taoism.

But we'd better not tell anyone!! People would begin to say he's a communist, heathen, etc., etc. LOL!!

[IAM4CLINTON]

You left wing folks can spew all the venom and hatred you want at the Clintons- but that is not a smart strategy to get the majority of the middle Democrats- 16.5 Million to date that has voted for Hillary Clinton.
The vital center wins elections- the Obamas better start celebrating the BEST Dem President in a generation- Bill Clinton- if he has a prayer of getting our votes. BTW, NOT SINCE 1916 has a Democrat won the WH without winning WV- Bill Clinton carried it twice- and Obama is at a dismal position- does that portend the fall ? I

[utd]

Do you even read what people write or just assume and attack? That 16.5 million is only if you include FL and MI as is, if they had been real votes chances are she would have more than that. Then again so would Obama.

Why is it you assume that 16 million people will automatically not vote for Obama in the fall? The polls say something different, and they get better for Senator Obama every day. Have you spoken with each of those 16 million people? Every single one? How do you know? Easy answer is you don't know that, in fact if you read the news or polls you know the opposite of that and say it anyway.

Enough with the "this state determines everything blah blah blah" becasue they don't. WV is no more important than Missouri. It's a sham, a fish tale, a lie even. Nothing is absolute pal, sorry.

[raskolnikov72]

http://tinyurl.com/68ru9x

None of the President's for the last 40 years appear to have been the "best" for the 50th percentile and below.

People need to wake up to the fact that more of the same, means well, more of the same.

[MyAudacity]

Women want to be the kingmaker in this election. They want to be the one to make or break the Democratic Party by holding their votes hostage, or with threats. It's like not having sex with your husband until he complies with your wishes.

If this was the Garden of Eden, these silly women would repeat the same mistake Eve did, and listen to that damned serpent, and choose to obey him rather than God. I know this may go over many of your heads. But the analogy is this........do you want to give up the Garden of Eden (Democratic Party), because you listened to that damn serpent (Rush Limbaugh, etc), and eat the forbidden fruit (supporting McCain and his Bush policies).....why not look to hope for a better future, and be supportive of your nominee, no matter who it is?

To do anything differently means your motives are suspect, not the candidates.

[Gma11]

Correlation, not causation.

[Ariesjill]

Boys & Girl, we have a WINNAH! Accurate, insightful, perspective-enhancing piece. Bravo, Mr. Ducat!

[Anastasia]

Hillary's father was a terrible bully. If she forgot to put the cap back on the toothpaste, he would throw the cap out the window and make her look for it, even in the dead of winter.

Unfortunately, like a lot of kids in that kind of situation, Hillary learned that the "tough ones" in the family, have all the power. On some level, she unconsciously modeled herself after him.

She's a tragic figure, really.

[Gma11]

That's fascinating.

We tend to project onto our perception of "God" the same qualities our parents have. Hillary's involvement in the "Family" would make perfect sense if her father was very authoritarian.

[CTtransplant]

Stephen, Excellent article! Informative, as well as insightful! Probably the best analysis I've seen on HuffPost thus far! Thank you!

[liseworks]

DITTO - BEST & SMARTEST BLOG I'VE SEEN DURING THIS WHOLE CAMPAIGN !!
& THIS ! is the crux of this campaign - can a man with soul finally be in the White House & if so ....imagine the possibilities - for those who don't understand any of this, dig into it - I promise you, you'll discover what it is to be genuinely happy - Obama clearly is the man who can show you how - He will lift us higher & help us become better - watch & see ....

[Gma11]

Love your enthusiasm!! And I agree with your basic premise.

[Dap]

Eloquent expressed indeed, and enjoyable read, enough said. Kudos!

[markflour]

Maybe Obama's best bet is to create a special position for HRC.

Just as she suggested Edwards could be poverty czar she could be the health czar (as long as her dealings are transparent - CSPAN).

[ramblingjohnny]

I agree lets give her an ambassadorship somewhere far far AWAY! Maybe in some remote small country of Africa. I just got a twisted idea forget Africa lets make her our ambassador to Bosnia!

[verlaine]

The viciousness and vulgarity of attacks on Obama's masculinity should disqualify Hillary from consideration as VP or Sen Majority leader. Hillary has never denounced or rejected these disgusting attacks. She just flashes her stupid smile while she tries to destroy the Democratic Party.

Hillary must go home.