Author: Karrin Vasby Anderson
When Tucker Carlson, reactionary pundit fired in 2023 from Fox News, overtook Donald Trump at the Turning Point rally in Duluth, Georgia on October 23, 2024, titillated participants by tacitly comparing Trump to a strict father and Democrats to a rebellious, “hormone-disturbed 15-year-old daughter.” Carlson insisted that “there has to be a point where dad comes home.”
As the crowd erupted in cheers and applause, Carlson continued:
“Dad comes home and he’s pissed. Dad is pissed. He is not vengeful. He loves his children. Even though they are disobedient, He loves them. Because they are his children. They live in his house. But he is very disappointed with their behavior. And he will have to inform them about it.
Initially to A political communication researcher like me, who studies gender and political leadership, the riff sounded like it was shaped by political philosophy identified by linguist George Lakoff in the 1990s. This philosophy included “strict father“a model of governance in which the government resembles a strict patriarch that enforces obedience through punishment and cultivates the self-reliance necessary for people to live without a social safety net.
Lakoff attributed this philosophy to Republican presidents, including: Ronald Reagan and later George W. Bushas well as rank-and-file GOP members.
However, Carlson’s strict father departed from Lakoff’s version in crucial ways. According to Lakoff, the moral authority of the strict father is rooted in a personal ethic of self-discipline, temperance, and restraint – qualities he seeks to pass on to those he is supposed to protect.
Carlson’s strict father has transformed into an unbridled leader who takes pleasure in the pain of his subordinates. As the crowd encouraged him, Carlson played his part:
“And when dad comes home, you know what he says? You were a bad girl. You have been a naughty girl and now you are being spanked vigorously. And no, it won’t hurt me more than it will hurt you. No, it’s not. I’m not going to lie. It will hurt you much more than it will hurt me. And you deserved it. You are spanked vigorously because you have been a bad girl.
In Carlson’s story, the Republican MAGA patriarch becomes a sadist who takes pleasure in inflicting pain on an infantilized, feminized, and defenseless Democratic opponent. It was a distortion of an already sexist theory of governance.
“Sexism, sadism and sexualization”
In my research I looked into how to do this sexism, sadism and sexualization often combine in the mainstream of political discourse addressed to candidates and voters.
As the 2024 presidential campaign nears its finale, Trump and the acolytes surrounding him have made a bid racist and sexist grievances powered by profanity as a final argument.
On October 25, Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC placed an ad to @America The X account that Musk took overwith the warning: “America really can’t afford the ‘C’ word in the White House these days.”
Advertisement opens with a content advisory: “WARNING: THIS AD CONTAINS MULTIPLE APPEARANCES OF THE “C” WORD. VIEWER DISCREETITY IS RECOMMENDED.”
The narrator announces, “Kamala Harris is the C-word,” and the off-screen audience gasps. The voice continues, “You heard right. The large elderly C word.
The ad accuses Harris of “raising taxes, loving regulations and grabbing guns” – then the narrative stops to show a cat in a Soviet military uniform against a dazzling red background. The cat quickly changes to a photo of Harris wearing a Soviet-style fur hat while the ad states that the “C-word” is “communist” meaning “Comrade Kamala”. So she is a tax-raising, regulation-loving, gun-toting… communist.
The New York Times reported that despite the final reveal, “the setup is there an obvious play in a much more vulgar term begins with the same letter – an insult to women is one of the most obscene words in American English. The ad’s depiction of Harris as a cat – a kitten – is a decidedly unsubtle echo of the implied insult.
A history of insulting women
This isn’t the first time a Trump ally has invoked the “C-word” to insult a woman running for president.
In 2008, Trump friend, colleague and future campaign strategist Roger Stone launched a PAC titled “Citizens United Not Fearful: The 527 Organization Aims to Educate the American Public on What Hillary Clinton Really Is.” Important letters are bolded in the image Stone put on the shirts: “CUNT.”
Unfortunately, fixating on politicians’ private parts is nothing up-to-date. I wrote about it in books, scientific articlesAND for the popular press. However, during a recent speech in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Trump told the story of Fr the size of professional golfer Arnold Palmer’s penisostensibly as a way to connect with viewers in Latrobe, Palmer’s birthplace.
The anecdote was more than accidental. It was an exercise of patriarchal power.
Trump said: “Arnold Palmer was entirely humanand I say this with all respect to women. Then his voice became throaty as he insisted, “And I love women, but this guy, this guy, this is a guy who is all man. This man was strong and tough.” Trump then explained, “When I was in the shower with the other professionals, they came out and said, ‘Oh my God, this is unbelievable.'”
Trump’s decision to injectconversation in the locker room” in his election discourse is a reminder Access Hollywood footage which came out in 2016 and featured Trump boasting “give it a try.”[ing] to f…” a married woman, “mov[ing] at her like a female dog” and grabbing women “by the pussy” without consent.
“You will be protected”
Trump disregards consent whether he is an aggressor or alleged defender. Trying to appeal to women voters, Trump recently he added a promise to his speech: “You will no longer be abandoned, alone and afraid. You will no longer be in danger… You will be protected and I will be your protector.
To be expected that The paternalistic refrain deserves so much contempteven his advisors asked him to stop saying it.
Trump’s response was telling. On October 30, he he told the rally audience that he rejected his staff’s suggestion, saying, “I said, well, I’ll do it whether the women like it or not.”
Doing so, whether women like it or not, is the final argument of MAGA Republicans in the 2024 campaign. They have abandoned the “strict father” and become the scary uncle.
Karrin Vasby Anderson is a professor of communication studies at Colorado State University
This article has been republished from Conversation under Creative Commons license. Read it original article.
