In the run-up to the US election this week, there were two video clips that caught my eye. Both were all over the internet. Both can say something about why many men now feel more at home on the right than on the left in politics. Both should perhaps have been discussed in a different way than what they were. The first clip was from the talk show of British Graham Norton. Movie stars Saoirse Ronan, Eddie Redmayne and Paul Mescal sat on the fiery red sofa. Mescal and Redmayne talked about conducting combat training for a role, and a trainer who had mentioned the possibility of using a mobile phone as a defensive weapon. It would never strike them to do in reality. Here Ronan broke in and said: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time.” In the silence that followed, she added, “Am I right, ladies?” The audience responded with applause. MASSIVE ATTENTION: The moment Saoirse Ronan, centre, intervened in the discussion between Paul Mescal and Eddie Redmayne, went viral across the internet. Photo: Pa Photos The second clip was an American commercial to encourage women to vote for Kamala Harris. Two white women arrive at the polling station with their men. They exchange glances before voting for the Democrats. When the one man, who has all the hallmarks of a conservative Trump voter, asks if his wife did the right thing, she smiles and says “sure did”. Only the other woman knows she actually voted for Harris. The remarkable thing about the clip from Graham Norton was that it became something of a sensation, hailed as a victory, a nose-picker for the men on the couch. “Saoirse Ronan silences the men,” wrote The Independent. Cosmopolitan called the moment “iconic”. “Ronan reminds Paul Mescal (and other men) of the dangers women face every day,” said Vogue. Marina Hyde in The Guardian: “The men on Graham Norton’s couch found self-defense amusing. I’m sure most women have had that conversation before.” She describes the men’s facial expressions afterwards as hysterically funny. CALLED ‘ICONIC’: Saoirse Ronan later said she was surprised by the response she got after the moment on Graham Norton’s talk show. Photo: Reuters What had actually happened? Ronan made a perfectly reasonable point. The men nodded and said yes, she could be right about that. The conversation then moved on. No one expressed that they thought self-defense was a joke. The men had wondered if they would even think of taking out the phone if someone came towards them. But out there there was clearly a need to see men fall silent in shame in the face of a woman who put them in their place. The Harris ad also had a perfectly legitimate goal. In a country where the political debate is as aggressive as in the United States, it does little to be reminded that you can vote without having to defend your ballot, either in public or over the dinner table. But the way it is done sucks. The man in the commercial is only in it for a few seconds, but it’s enough for him to appear a bit smooth and stupid, smug in his conviction that he knows what his wife is thinking. But for the women the film targeted, spouses of Trump voters, the husband would not be such a caricature. It is about someone she chose to marry, perhaps the father of her children. It is not inconceivable that such a presentation could have worked against its purpose. That it is the Harris campaign, and not Trump voters, who presumptuously think they know what women think. SUPPORTING PLAYER: Movie star Julia Roberts supported Kamala Harris, and was the voice reminding women that their vote was secret in the controversial commercial. Photo: Rights Managed / Mary Evans Picture Both of these film clips are small blinks in time. For a day or two they were the subject of heated columns and conversations, before everyone moved on. But added together, and seen together with other such flashes, they create a bigger picture. They characterize a media culture that is not particularly sympathetic towards the masculine. Who can caricature men without anyone getting arrested for it. Because it is not so easy to imagine that a celebrity would become a hero for reprimanding women. Or that a large audience should nod approvingly at a commercial in which a man had to keep his political views hidden from his wife, only to discover that only other men understood him. This is not to say that there aren’t misogynistic and derogatory messages about women out there, to put it mildly. The previous and future president of the United States suggested several times during the election campaign that Kamala Harris must have given powerful men sexual favors to get to the top. When a rally attendee shouted out that she had worked “on a street corner”, Trump said that “this place is amazing”, before adding: “Remember that’s something other people are saying, not me”. HIT MEN: Donald Trump won male voters by a wide margin in the US presidential election. Photo: Reuters But in the established media, which have gatekeepers and ethics posters and which pride themselves on being balanced and fair, the bias goes in the opposite direction. There is no lack of interest in men, oh no. It is as if the gears of society are frantically turning to try to find explanations and solutions to men’s problems. The questions are asked, about why they drop out of high school, why they don’t get women. Answer after answer is offered. But it is as if it is happening from a distance. Men are a group you can alternately yell at and feel sorry for. This week, Donald Trump won the vote of white men by a 23 percent margin, and Latino men by a corresponding 12 percent. One of the things that was considered decisive was that Trump almost engaged in podcast hopping between influencers and personalities who speak specifically to men. The most important of them, Joe Rogan, is known to have the most popular podcast in the United States. 81 percent of those who listen to his many hour long broadcasts are men. This autumn, it caused a stir in this country that 47 percent of Norwegian men between the ages of eighteen and 29 said they would vote for Trump, according to a survey from Ipsos. THE WINNER: It should come as no surprise that men who refuse to be yelled at, like President-elect Donald Trump, appeal to many other men. Photo: Bjarte Johannesen / news Anyone who declares that they support Trump must expect to receive critical questions from those around them. The convincing election victory notwithstanding: It must still be called sensational to stand behind a candidate who has attempted a coup, and who talks openly about persecuting those who disagree with him. But neither should anyone be too surprised that men who refuse to be yelled at have an attraction to men who are irritated by the tone of the so-called liberal public. If these men do not feel they have a home here, they are offered a home elsewhere. It may not be lucky for anyone. MOST POPULAR: Joe Rogan has the most popular podcast in the US, and is mainly aimed at men. Photo: AP The debate about men and women and power is full of emotions and contradictions. Some challenges are linked to gender, and it must be possible to discuss them openly. Men and women are powerful and powerless in different ways. It is not easy to see what can be done to remedy the eventually well-documented ideological gap between the sexes. But it is possible to take a small step. Anyone who writes something about men can pause for a moment, turn the sentence around, and see if they would be able to write the same about women. If the answer is no, it is perhaps a sign that the reasoning can take another round in the thinking box. Published 10.11.2024, at 15.06
ttn-69
