As the husband of the vice president, a job in which there is very little to do, Doug Emhoff is the very epitome of useless. He gracefully reinforced that impression Wednesday, when he fearlessly confronted one of the most pressing issues of our time. With a level of courage and insight that lesser men can only wish they could someday attain, Emhoff, striding the narrow world like a colossus, bestowed his steely gaze upon Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC and informed the hapless correspondent that the vice president’s First Guy was confronting (unflinchingly!) the biggest, profoundest, toughest problem our sorely-tried nation faces today: toxic masculinity.
Capehart, somehow managing not to be intimidated simply to be in the presence of The Second Dude, said to him: “A moment ago I asked you about gender roles. I want to dive in even deeper on that. Can we just talk about masculinity for a moment? Has being second gentleman changed your view of perceived gender roles and what it means to be a man?” This is the journalism we need, America! When confronted with the useless husband of a useless official, ask him how he feels about being useless! Bravo, Capehart! This is your finest hour!
And Emhoff felt the blow, responding (no kidding): “Oof.” But then the great man recovered his legendary composure and launched into his rousing defense of weak men everywhere: “This is something I have thought about a lot, I’ve spoken about a lot. There’s too much of toxicity — masculine toxicity out there, and we’ve kind of confused what it means to be a man, what it means to be masculine. You’ve got this trope out there where you have to be tough, and angry, and lash out to be strong.”
By “masculine toxicity” Emhoff clearly meant “toxic masculinity.” Close enough, Doug! In any case, he put his finger on the real problem America faces today. Can any objective observer survey the contemporary scene and not come to the conclusion that our trouble is that there are just too many masculine men out there being strong, tough, and dependable? Just look at them all: Rachel Levine, Dylan Mulvaney, Sam Brinton, Sam Smith — the list goes on and on. Clearly, we really do have a masculinity problem; it’s just not quite the one Doug Emhoff envisions.
You won’t catch Mr. Kamala going all John Wayne on us and standing strong when the going gets tough. Oh, no. That kind of thing is “toxic.” Authentically Masculine Doug made it all plain for Capehart: “I think it is just the opposite. Strength is how you show your love for people. Strength is how you are for people and how you have their back and how you stick up for other people and pushing up and out against bullies.” That means, for those of you who may not speak fluent Leftish, opposing Trump and DeSantis.
Emhoff continued: “And that’s what I believe it is. So every time I can speak against this toxicity — we are seeing it with our younger people, we’re seeing it in our discourse and politics, in the media you are seeing it as it relates to so many of the issues we are pushing back on, so I think it’s a problem and I am going to continue to use this platform every time I get to speak out against this toxic masculinity that is out there.”
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Heroic! What a, uh, man! But according to the Daily Wire, conservative commentator Trish Regan offered a succinct summation of one aspect of what was wrong with Emhoff’s remarks: “It’s just that you seem really kind of hell-bent on making sure that young kids don’t understand the difference between a man and a woman. You know, Apple has that ‘pregnant man’ emoji and everyone sudden[ly] wants to go by ‘they.’ A masculine man is someone who is a responsible person. A responsible person, a kind person who looks out for women and recognizes the vulnerability and the specialness, if you will, of women. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Indeed.
Our rancid culture today demonizes men, and so it’s no wonder that we have so few of them. Emhoff, by joining the multitudes who are portraying masculinity as something negative, is contributing to the further weakening of our society, which is not likely to bear good fruit as the enemies of our nation grow increasingly emboldened. But Emhoff is almost certainly not concerned about that at all; his capable and intelligent wife will take care of it for him. Won’t she?
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