Intruiging article about Dean's macho appeal (The Nation)

[rumguy]

"Peggy Noonan, who wrote speeches for Reagan, calls Dean 'the it candidate"--not because of his policy positions but because of "sheer attitude.' When Bill Moyers asked Wall Street Journal columnist Dorothy Rabinowitz what she thought of Dean, she launched into a meditation on his body: 'He's got this jut-jawed face. He's got sort of the right posture. It's an absurd posture--that sleeves rolled up. But it works for mysterious reasons. All the mysterious reasons...you can't put your finger on.' Women are freer to acknowledge what guys aren't supposed to notice (though they do): Dean has skillfully cast himself as a manly alternative to Bush's ripe macho. That's no mean feat for a dove.

Dean is the only major Democratic candidate to evade the sissifying barbs of the GOP's shock-jock surrogates. First, comely John Edwards was labeled 'the Breck girl.; (He trimmed his hair, to no avail.) When Edwards flagged and John Kerry emerged, he was dubbed "Mr. Ketchup," implying that his wife's fortune, and by extension Teresa Heinz Kerry herself, wears the pants in their manse. (Kerry hauled out a bomber jacket to signal his war record, but it resonated with the image of Michael Dukakis peering haplessly from the hatch of a tank.) Then came Wesley Clark in mufti barely concealing his stars and bars. After this writer compared Clark favorably to Ashley Wilkes, Rush Limbaugh jumped on the analogy, braying on about Clark's wimpery while the theme from Gone With the Wind played in the background. As for Dick Gephardt, he has long labored under the burden of lacking eyebrows, making it hard for him to perform the requisite Dirty Harry stare. If he should somehow prevail, look for the Republicans to draw comparisons between his currently ample brows and their formerly faint state. If there's one thing wussier than lacking body hair, it's a transplant."

snip

" Can a Democrat be an alpha male? The question hasn't come up on CNN, but it may be the hidden issue of the campaign. After decades of associating Democrats with failed masculinity, the Republicans are faced with an opponent who knows how to put on a butch display. They are trying to get around Dean's fight-back persona by portraying him as a dyspeptic, impetuous fool. Whether this negative spin will stick remains to be seen, but there's another a-word that pops up regularly in pieces about Dean: anger. The Republicans and their allies are trying to undercut his brashness by calling him reckless. Still, fist-waving hasn't exactly hurt Donald Rumsfeld. Ever since 9/11, nothing seems to be over the top when it comes to macho in a pol. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger. His meteoric rise--despite a record of groping and degrading women--is ample proof that in American politics today Liberace's motto applies: 'Too much is not enough!'"

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040126&s=goldstein

[patricia92243]

1. "bush's ripe macho" - what is that supposed to mean - I can't believe

that anyone would find him manly - ugh.

Dean is definitely the alpha male - as was Bill Clinton before him.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

25. ripe masculinity, like Bush after a hard day's cheerleading at Andover

:eyes:

[AP]

2. This masculinity thing is going to kill Democrats. There's a backlash

against feminism in America today that is driven by the RW. Dean may think he's countering it by playing into the Republican-defined desire for manly men. However, it's just playing the Republican's game.

America has got to get back to Title IX America, and back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer America. Women have got to realize that their place isn't the place of Laura Bush -- twenty paces behind Bush, saying barely two sentences a month, deferring to the fuck-up cowboy who fails his way to the top.

The Democrats need to run a guy who can have a woman standing right next to him, who says something, and who doesn't look out of place.

[rumguy]

4. Dean believes all that too - but this is just the way he is naturally

he is somewhat of an "alpha male"

[AP]

6. How do you know what he is naturally?

How do you know what Dean believes?

[rumguy]

9. It's the way he carries himself, the way he communicates

He's no Dukakis...that's the point...

[AP]

10. How do you that's him naturally? He wasn't born with sleeves

rolled up to mid-upper arm.

[rumguy]

12. Are you saying it's all an act?

that's a stretch...he wears his sleeves up cuz that's how he like to wear them...geez

[AP]

22. The sleeves thing I think is an act, yes.

[stickdog]

16. Dean is just being himself. And the only way a Dem is beating Bush is if

he comes across as tough.

[Cheswick2.0]

27. AP, your post is offensive in so many ways

Are you really suggesting that Democrat women or any women think their place is walking twenty places behind some man? Are you suggesting that Dean can't have a woman standing beside him or that we are responding to some alpha male imagage if we support him?
What exactly are you saying about Dean and his relationship with women? Spit it out.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

35. That's exactly what bothers me about his personality. People shouldn't

be encouraging him to act like an angry aggressive fighting man. We already have one of those in the White House and look where that's gotten us.

[formernaderite]

37. Dean: guys guy

Dean seems like a real guys guy to me. How is expressing masculine traits a republican mantra? Sorry I am not conceding half the populations genetic make up to the other side. Maybe what you're seeing is "some" democrats finally feeling comfortable in their own male skin once again.
Quite frankly I couldn't care less what the candidates spouse does or says. One day the spouse will be a man...there is no generic perscription for the spouse of a candidate. Geez...enough with the stereotyping.

[SahaleArm]

3. This author is quite the narcistist...

Then came Wesley Clark in mufti barely concealing his stars and bars. After this writer compared Clark favorably to Ashley Wilkes, Rush Limbaugh jumped on the analogy, braying on about Clark's wimpery while the theme from Gone With the Wind played in the background.

What's the point of this drivel?

[AP]

5. Furthermore, quoting Peggy Noonan without explaining why Peggy

Noonan wants you to think in terms of masculinity doesn't win a lot of credibility points with me.

[rumguy]

7. Noonan only shows up once in the article....

[AP]

11. even when she shows up just once, you'd think a magazine like

the nation would take a second to discuss her agenda. This guy doesn't because his agenda is very similar: frame the debate in terms of masculinity.

[SahaleArm]

8. Peggy Noonan is pushing Flight Suit...

And the Nation is pushing Dean; both of those points are reflected in this self-aggrandizing article. I'm not sure I like that matchup.

[beaconess]

21. Wow - talk about hypocrisy!

It wasn't two days ago that some folks in here went absolutely apoplectic because someone had the noive to quote Peggy Noonan in another thread. Of course, that Noonan quote was critical of Howard Dean, so I guess it was unacceptable.

[Cheswick2.0]

28. wrong

the article quotes peggy noonan not the person posting.
Peg is a dolt, BTW.

[Wonco_the_Sane]

13. Big Buffy Fan

How about Hillary??? Please say it's not to late :)
If in the worst case *ugh* shrub wins, How about the "other" Clinton in 2008 or sooner? Macho goes out the window + a Dem who can win!!
just a thought as I'm a newbie here

[newyawker99]

24. Hi Wonco_the_Sane!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[tedoll78]

14. He is indeed macho

And he's doing it on purpose. The sleeves.. the gruff, gravely voice.. oh yes, this is done to cultivate an image.

[SahaleArm]

15. This is rich - he's waffling/pandering for the white male vote...

At the neoliberal Democratic Leadership Council, this "white male problem" has become the subject of whole conferences. Dean may lambaste the DLC as "the Republican part of the Democratic Party," but he's borrowed page after page from its gender-politics playbook. Dean wasn't just whistling Dixie when he made his infamous remark about reaching out to bubbas bearing Confederate flags. Even when he apologized, he didn't back down from the agenda behind that comment. In cultivating the National Rifle Association, denying that he's a liberal, signaling his flexibility on affirmative action and insisting that he's not really for gay marriage (just civil unions), Dean is playing to pissed-off white guys.

Dean is the Democrat that will win the white male vote? Uh, ok.

[stickdog]

17. How is he waffling/pandering? He's from VT. They don't need gun control.

Dean is way tougher than the perfumed prince.

[tedoll78]

18. Okay..

I'm a Dean man, but Clark is a tough, tough man in his own way. Being injured for his own country comes to mind..

[SahaleArm]

19. LOL - do you actually believe that? Pass me the Kool-Aid n/t

[kerry-is-my-prez]

36. The infamous "angry white male" yet.... Gawd what has this party come to?

[Kahuna]

20. "Macho????" He looks like the PIllsbury Dough Boy to me..

If THAT's what's passing for macho these days.... tsk tsk tsk.

[bhunt70]

23. Used car salesman...

[MIMStigator]

30. Highschool wrestling coach

nt

[KittyWampus]

31. Barney Rubble

[HFishbine]

26. Let's just hope

he doesn't start dressing in argyles and duck boots.

[Eric J in MN]

29. Rush Limbaugh called Wesley Clark a wimp?!

Rush Limbaugh called Wesley Clark a wimp?!

When? Based on what?

[SeveneightyWhoa]

32. He's called him a lot of things.

Why the hell would anyone care what Limbaugh cared, thought, did, or said?

[Eric J in MN]

34. What was Limbaugh's justification for calling Wesley Clark a wimp? (nt)

nt

[dd123]

33. Ok, so I can finally come out and say this

I've been thinking for some time that even though Kerry and Clark are the vets and the decorated military hero types, for some reason they both come across as wimpy looking. And, although Clark is from the South, he sounds to me like someone from the North or some other non-south area.

There's something about Clark's shoulders, I don't know if he's hunched over or if they're just too skinny, but to me they don't allow him to project an appearance of power. He looks really earnest, like a boy scout, but not Alpha Male at all.

I also think that his campaigns idea about sweaters is kinda stupid. Sweaters only emphasize this shoulder thing. Frankly, the more military he looks the more attractive for women.

I was watching Queer eye on New Years and they were doing a Marine with the theme of "an officer and a gentleman". Carson picked up the guys military uniform and said "see there are gays in the military...this had to have been designed by a gay man!" and I had to crack up.

Yeah, yeah, this is all superficial.

It's just my $0.02.

[mikewriter]

38. Tough as nails

Dean is and that's how the challenger should be in order to topple Bush. Dean is tough, stubbon, at times arrogant and exactly what this country needs. Clark is tough but I don't buy him and I don't trust him.