Jerry Seinfeld’s not the only one missing the days of male dominance

A couple of months back, I mentioned Jerry Seinfeld whining about how he misses the days of dominant masculinity. According to the NYT, even guys too young to remember those days are pining for them. Where young women are solidly in the Harris camp on the one hand, “On the other are young men, some of whom feel that rapidly changing gender roles have left them behind socially and economically, and see former President Donald J. Trump as a champion of traditional manhood.”

The real issue for them, the paper says, is less misogyny than feeling they can’t fulfill the traditional role of breadwinner. And that they can’t bring home the bacon to have a decent home, take care of their kids and have a car that works. Which is understandable … if you overlook that Republicans aren’t going to do anything to change that. All they’ll do is give guys a swaggering jackass in the White House — which at least some of these guys will feel happier with than a woman. At least it’s someone who looks like them, right?

One critic on Bluesky was more critical than I am (which is not to say she’s wrong): “It’s never been less rewarding to be a mediocre man, and a lot of men can sense that. There used to be safe places they could be slotted into societal machinery and just run down the clock in solidly-defined-for-them roles, but not anymore. They have to earn more than any generation before them.” As Courtney Milan put it, men used to be able to land a wife by being the least-bad option out there, and that’s no longer a sure thing.

As I wrote in an earlier post, one of the standard media responses (not present in the NYT article) is that feminists need to do something: if they can’t give men an alternative vision of how to be, confused guys will fall into the hands of misogynists, incels and others eager for the return of male control. The current political moment is a good reminder that feminists and liberals do offer alternatives:

“You couldn’t ask for a better encapsulation of the two parties’ gender politics: Democrats pushing a complex, positive vision of masculinity while Republicans desperately try to hold together their He-Man Woman-Haters Club. In recent months, the campaign has been filled with similar juxtapositions, from JD Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comments to Doug Emhoff’s supportive wife-guy persona. As historic as Kamala Harris’ run is for women, this election has become very much about men.

In fact, the election of the first woman president may end up being a referendum on masculinity. Namely, whether the country will reject the toxic and dying version of American manhood so perfectly embodied by Donald Trump. “

Will that help? I hope so. Because patriarchy, as LGM says, is one of the things fueling the push to end end democracy: “Straight white Christian/Protestant men have suffered a massive cultural status degradation in this country since the 1960s, and they and their descendants are extremely unhappy about it” And plenty of them will willingly lie that Of Course this doesn’t mean they want women barefoot and pregnant again. They do.

Whatever you’re doing to push for a Trump defeat and a Harris win (assuming you are doing something) keep doing it. Women and men both deserve better than being shoved back into the 1950s (only without the union factory jobs with good wages).