This piece was first published in our news digest, The Front Page. To get our latest scoops, investigations, and columns in your inbox every morning, Monday through Thursday, become a Free Press subscriber today:
This presidential race is fast shaping up to be a battle of the sexes.
On Sunday, after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, the KHive came out in full force. One of them was British pop star Charli XCX. “Kamala IS brat,” she tweeted, referring to the title of her latest album. To be “brat,” according to Charli on TikTok, is to be “that girl who is a little messy and maybe says dumb things sometimes, who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown but parties through it. It is honest, blunt, and a little bit volatile.”
Soon afterward, the Harris campaign rebranded its X account with a brat theme—copying the chartreuse tones and fuzzy lowercase font of Charli’s album cover. (Kat Rosenfield calls brat the “living embodiment of feminism as imagined by Gen Z.” Read her column all about that here.)
Up against Kamala the Brat, we have Trump the Macho Man.
Trump—an egotistical billionaire who boasts about “grabbing them by the pussy” and was found liable for sexual assault by a New York jury—has long been synonymous with “toxic masculinity.”
But after an assassination attempt on July 13, his undeniably badass reaction—raised fist, blood on his face, yelling “fight”—demonstrated some less toxic virtues and resonated with American men. “Hardest edit of all time,” commented Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports and tribune of the American bro, when he posted a video of the attack soundtracked by 50 Cent’s “Many Men (Wish Death)”—a song about surviving being shot.
The two candidates embody many of the divides in American politics—young vs. old, progressive vs. populist—but none as important as the gender gap. This divide has been growing for years. In February, Gallup showed that young American men tend to be conservative while their female counterparts are becoming increasingly left-wing. Women between the ages of 18 and 30 are now 30 points more liberal than men their age.
Both candidates need to find a way to close this gap in November. Trump consistently polls poorly among women and much better with men. For example, even after Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month, in which Trump presented himself as more composed and competent, one poll showed he opened up an astonishing 27-point lead among male voters. But Biden still led among female voters by eight points.
Despite this challenge, both candidates seem to be embracing the divide rather than courting the opposite sex.
At the RNC, Trump leaned into his increasingly male voter base. On Thursday, retired professional wrestler Hulk Hogan (real name, Terry Bollea) ripped off his shirt, flexed his biceps, and exclaimed: “Let Trump-a-mania run wild, brother!” UFC president Dana White also spoke. Kid Rock delivered a testosterone-fueled assault on our eardrums. And the previous night, Trump walked onto the stage to “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” by James Brown.
Meanwhile, as she embraces her “brat” status, Harris reportedly plans to become the first woman in the White House by focusing her campaign on abortion rights. Back in April, she appeared on daytime TV and nodded along as Drew Barrymore held her hands and told her viewers the nation “needs a Momala.”
This gender divide presents opportunities and hazards for both sides. Get it right and you can fire up your faithful—as Hulk Hogan did last week. Get it wrong and you can look like a bit of a jackass—like J.D. Vance.
In a 2021 interview that resurfaced in the past few days, Trump’s running mate listed Harris as one of the “bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Hey, J.D., don’t forget: cat ladies vote, too.
Oliver Wiseman is a writer and editor for The Free Press. Follow him on X @ollywiseman.
our Comments
Use common sense here: disagree, debate, but don't be a .