Sissyphobia and the Unacknowledged Gayness of the GOP
Published March 21, 2007
It's all rather hilarious, but also deadly serious. After all, one way in which Sissyphobes show they're real men is by declaring war on small nations for no good reason. The Sissyphobe acts bully-butch to prove he's not a sissy — and that's where the harm to everyone else comes in.
Why do so many Republicans and conservatives have this fear? The bigger question is: why do so many Americans have it?
It's because the very definition of the American man is so messed up. At heart, being a man in our culture is being the aggressor. The hard man. The tough guy. The warrior. He who goes to extremes. He who will kill for his cause. We see his definition in our movies - the man with the gun: Dirty Harry, Rambo, The Terminator. It gets worse: our fantasy life is often an expression of our real selves. Killing is what America's men have done from the start - wipe out Native Americans, invade the Philippines, and after the good WW2, start more than twenty wars against weaker nations, of which Vietnam and the Iraq War have been the most egregious examples. Over two million Vietnamese and Cambodians dead. Dead Arabs by the hundreds of thousands. Jesus H. Christ, are we a crazy bunch of sissyphobes gone bully-butch or not?
Where is the other role model for men - the nurturing man, the gentle man, the soft man? As rare as a vacuum in nature.
Sissyphobia is a sickness inside the American soul, which we may be doomed to suffer as long as we remain typical Americans. Some pundit said when it comes to foreign policy, America is from Mars and Europe is from Venus. It may be more instructive to say that Europeans aren't as Sissyphobic as us. Mind you, it took the massive Sissyphobia of Hitler and his lot to remind Europe how to act civilized.
In America, we're still dangerously vulnerable to Sissyphobia. When we get a Republican president and a Republican Congress and a Neocon administration, like we had for six years, we have a perfect storm of Sissyphobia. And boy, do we suffer the consequences: the world used to love us, and now they hate us. Ironically, our bully-butch ways have lost us power instead of gaining it, as the Sissyphobes hoped. We used to have some stature in Latin America - now they think we're a joke.
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- Sissyphobia and the Unacknowledged Gayness of the GOP
- Published: March 21, 2007
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Politics
- Filed Under: Culture: Society, Politics: U.S., Politics: War and Terrorism
- Writer: Adam Ash
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Comments on this articleComments
Here are somer really gay comments....
"John Kerry reporting for Duty" - John Kerry
"I think the people who are pushing vouchers are not interested in educating our kids." - Charles Schumer
"I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator." Barack Obama
"When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk. Get up out of that wheelchair and walk again." John Edwards
Gee what a bunch of FAGGOTS!
JOM
Ever think it might just be hormones?
How likely is it that the GOP will become less Daddy and more Mommy? Less war-mongering bully-butch and more nurturing?
What I like most about Adam is how he persists in writing about the Republicans and their party while not understanding the party at all. Or for that matter understanding much of anything.
What makes him think, for example, that it is a good thing for EITHER party to be Daddy OR Mommy? Are we children that need politicians to make our decisiosn for us?
Or how about we take this analogy to its logical conclusion. What kind of Mommy is the Democrat party and what kind of Daddy is the GOP. Perhaps the Dems are the passive-aggressive and abusive Joan Crawford of "Mommy Dearest" while the GOP are a bit like a father unsure of what to do when his teenage daughter has an abusive boyfriend.
Dave
This is just more queer bashing from the looney left!
JOM
Gays in the GOP!?
Dave, say it isn't so!
I don't see any gays in the GOP! Who? How? What?
All I see are manly men. Punching shoulders, swaggering, driving Big Hummers. I don't see Rove in a Tutu, Giuliani with his arm around another mans waist, Cheney and Bush in dual bondage leather embrace.
If you're going to say there are queers in the GOP you have to prove it, Dave!
Actually, it's Giuliani in a tutu and Rove sneaking into gay clubs on P St. But Giuliani isn't gay, just intouch with his feminine side.
Dave
I don't have anything to say about this article. Just a note to Dave that the gay clubs in DC have all moved off of P Street and onto either Connecticut Avenue (north of the circle) or 18th Street in Adams Morgan. A couple in Mt. Pleasant, too. But the only gay club I know on P Street is over in Logan Circle.
michael, you sure know a lot about the gay clubs in d.c. just sayin'. i love your body.
jom... you're a dingleberry caught in the hairy asshole of the republican party. even the smelliest part of the bottom half of the republicans don't want you there, and would be much happier without you hanging around.
Michael, I noticed that Mr. P's was gone (the popular leather bar), but there's still a gay bar where The Fraternity House used to be. But I can see how P Street might have gotten too expensive and clubs have moved on. I'm sure Karl Rove can find them wherever they are.
Dave
Wow, great post. You didn't even mention Rush's fear of the "castrating" Hillary. The right wing talking heads don't just disparage public women, they do so in the most insulting sexually debasing terms: skank, whore, prostitute, uppity, harpy, etc... Thom Hartmann's show today had an analysis of the right's preoccupation with sex and why they promote the fear of strong women. It's too prevalent to be just a coincidence.
Perhaps it's unfair, but I always figured that Rush's hate was fueled by jealousy because he never "got any" in the 60's. It's pathetic to see how desperately he's trying to make up for lost time.
I hope a previous poster is correct that younger men aren't subject to this homophobic perversion. I have a young son and daughter. Their father, my husband, is an excellent role model of nurturing, non-violent, courageous masculinity. Men who are secure in their masculinity don't need to strut and make crude sexual comments. Those who do are saying a lot about their inner lives.
The right wing talking heads don't just disparage public women, they do so in the most insulting sexually debasing terms: skank, whore, prostitute, uppity, harpy, etc...
Michelle Malkin has been called every one of those and more (including the C word) by all the lefty loonies.
Coulter deserves it; Malkin does not.
It's just those dumb old American Republican men who persist in valuing masculinity. The rest of the world is filled with gentle, nurturing nice guys and always has been. I can't wait for the last American tough guy to die off so the world will be filled with peace and love.
Dave is right. Adam is out of line bringing up republicans and conservatives in the Politics forum. He should confine himself to g*y talk. Then we could return to democrat bashing because we know that THEY are all f*ggots.
Everyone should be more like JOM.
Some gays are democrats.
Some are republicans.
Some are sensitive, gentle nurturing people.
And some are mean spirited, vicious, catty people.
Just like all the rest of us.
Zing...
Gee thanks for your kind words. Understanding that you are an openly gay man you must find me a "smelly dingleberry caught in a hairy asshole" very attractive...
Sorry JOM dont go that way!
so, i get two things from that:
1) that because i defend gay rights, i am therefore gay. if that were true, you'd be overrun by gay people. come to your own conclusions about my sexuality, i really don't care (although i think it's perfectly clear).
2) gay people like dingleberries. no one likes dingleberries, jom. not even you. also, if you were a dingleberry on me, i would gather you up in some toilet paper and flush you. would that you were! oh... happy day.
Dave Nalle:
Yes, Giuliani is an interesting case. He's obviously comfortable with both his masculinity and his inner woman, because he has great fun dressing up as a woman and acting out the whole part. There's some funny stuff of Rudy on video with lipstick and all, and a high voice, doing a sort of matronly woman thing. It's damn refreshing, coming from a public figure. You've got to be real comfortable with your own masculinity -- and have no doubts that you're a real man -- to do that, and to do it with cameras running.
I don't see the same comfort level with being a man in the Bush public persona, and especially not in Cheney. Cheney is a bit of a caricature of himself on camera. That low voice is kind of bizarre and sort of put on.
If you take a guy like John Edwards, he's more of a softer kind of a guy, which means he's in touch with his softer, feminine side, and doesn't mind it showing.
To switch genders using the same analysis -- what's happened to Hillary is really interesting. She seems to get steelier and steelier as time goes by, getting more and more in touch with her inner man. At this point, she comes off more macho than either Barack or Edwards, who're both modern metrosexual types. Hillary is the Dem candidate with the biggest balls.
Dave, it's interesting that you mentioned that people's discomfort with their inner selves go beyond the feminine. What examples were you thinking of? It would be nice if you laid out what sprang to your mind. This is quite fruitful terrain, as you pointed out.
BTW, I'm aware I often overstate my case, but you know it's a strategy to provoke readers. Sometimes my pieces land halfway between "opinion" and "satire," and that's intentional, to get a rise out of the right-wingers.
On the other hand, my over-the-top is mild compared to the tone affected by, say, a JOM on the right, and some of the other comments from the left I read on Blogcritics. There are some lefties who say out loud they want some Republicans drawn and quartered -- a far-out place I'd never go.
Whether I've overstated my case or not, though, I think the concept of Sissyphobia is an interesting tool for analysis of masculine presentation, especially applied to the persona affected by public figures, who are, in a sense, acting when they appear on camera. For example, it was said of Gore that as stiff as he appeared on camera, in private he was a very funny, relaxed guy.
When people appear on camera, how they act for it is a clue to what they want the world to think of them, and that's where Sissyphobia is a useful new way to think about the over-the-top butch manner that some of our public men affect.
When I think of actors, for example, I see John Wayne as acting out a very, very relaxed kind of masculinity, and Bruce Willis acting out a more tightly-wound kind of masculinity -- which means John Wayne is totally relaxed with himself, but Bruce Willis less so.
Anyway, all food for thought.
Adam Ash
Zingzing: I work on P Street, in the former gay-club district. And my office is about a block from where Dave Nalle's grew up (insert obvious cheapshot here).
Dave, I stand corrected. Someone did indeed point out to me that Omega (the one where The Fraternity House used to be, if you hadn't guessed by the name) is still open. I don't go down that way very often, so I hadn't noticed it.
Zing...gee now you admit to being gender confused...you better stay away from those glory holes...Adam tells me they are not that healthy on the digestive system
JOM
PS Fuck You!
aww thanks, jom. debate with you always gets sexy.
debate with you also gets repeditive.
Dave, it's interesting that you mentioned that people's discomfort with their inner selves go beyond the feminine. What examples were you thinking of? It would be nice if you laid out what sprang to your mind. This is quite fruitful terrain, as you pointed out.
The other thing which came to mind was peoples level of acceptance of their 'inner child' or their willingness to embrace fun and playfullness rather than being serious all the time. That seems to be a real problem for some people, especially politicians, who take themselves way too seriously. I think that being able to laugh at yourself and not take things too seriously is an essential part of an integrated personality, and something that's clearly lacking in many people who are super-sensitive about criticism.
Good examples of this abound, but I think my favorites are the two Clintons. Bill clearly doesn't take himself too seriously and he has a sense of humor. It makes him appealing in a way which Hillary who lacks that kind of perspective is not.
BTW, I'm aware I often overstate my case, but you know it's a strategy to provoke readers. Sometimes my pieces land halfway between "opinion" and "satire," and that's intentional, to get a rise out of the right-wingers.
I realize, but soemtimes it becomes tedious.
On the other hand, my over-the-top is mild compared to the tone affected by, say, a JOM on the right, and some of the other comments from the left I read on Blogcritics. There are some lefties who say out loud they want some Republicans drawn and quartered -- a far-out place I'd never go.
Yes, well, certain unnamed people are idiots.
Dave
What the fu.k is a dingleberry? Some kind of new, hand-held computer?
STM:
Here are some definitions, mate.
Personally I like manly man and so do a lot of women who are reacting to the metro-sexual movement. YUCK!
Sissies are people who weren't socialized properly. They have taken on the characteristics of the other gender.
Homosexuals are a totally different thing. Homosexuals don't have to be sissies.
Now as for the over masculinized ACT of men on the right, it always smacks of closeted inclinations.
I think the "over masculinized ACT of men on the right" exists almost entirely in the imaginations of those on the left.
There are genuine cultural differences between people living in different regions of this country and in different circumstances, and activities considered commonplace in certain sub-cultures are viewed by those who don't understand them as some sort of artificial display of bogus masculinity, when they are something entirely different.
The classic example of this is the culture of guns and hunting, which is just part of the way of life which people in rural and western parts of the country - many of them democrats - are raised in. But it's so alien to the urbanized culture of the northeast that they can't believe it's something routine and normal. It's so outside their experience that they basically can't believe that people who at least share a language and nationality could embrace something so alien and (to them) horrifying, so they assume that it's some sort of put-on, that it's an artificial display of masculinity.
Conversely, though on a less pervasive level, certain displays of conspicuous 'culture' leave many in the country mystified. For example, ballet, wine tastings and the films of Woody Allen are incomprehensible and alien to a good portion of our nation, even those who are educated and quite literate in other ways. They understand these things but they can't figure out why anyone in their right mind would want to participate in them.
Dave
Ugghh.
Me Tarzan. You Zedd.
Clavos
Okay I like just one Sissy. Feel better now Clavos?
It's an easy question to answer, actually.
The majority of politicians--and of everyone else--in the US look down on anyone who isn't out there with raging testosterone bashing or shooting or raping somebody.
You're just bullies.
And we here in macho Latin America know that bullies really have no balls....that's why Bush stuffed his flight suit with sweat socks.
...or was it his sweat suit with flight socks?
Dave
I understand what you are saying. I am a Texan (not born but raised through and through) and am Zulu. I understand macho, the real thing. Ft Worth is just next door...... While Dallas is not really Texas but we have a lot of East Texas in these parts. In Dallas, we also KNOW gay. The coolest thing is Texas Gay. Super cool. They don't have to snap, roll and "no you diin't" to tell you off. They just apply one of those Texas colloquialisms and you are done.
IMO Man who are truly masculine are often the kindest people. They are open minded yet rational, they speak very little and know when the foolishness must end. They get things done and are solutions oriented.
Karl Rove... I wonder. He is so busy plotting and finagling and dramatizing, same with Rush, Ralph Reed, Falwell and Oreilly. They are so catty like the stereotypical hen house types.
Off course the President is just a play macho. I always imagine him with too big boots and his gun belt falling off of him like a tiny tot playing cowboy. He's just following Rovey's lead(Sissy!! You know he was over pummeled on the play ground. Just look at him). He doesn't know.
Chaney is just mad and diabolical. Not macho at all.
Dave:
You're absolutely right about one part of the country not understanding how another part of the country can be into some things. As a Northeasterner, I sometimes don't understand why I'm into Woody Allen myself. I certainly don't understand the LA thing of being into enhanced tits and lips and artificiality and all.
Zedd:
Cheney IS macho. The sneer, the low voice, the way he bends his head, looking out of one eye like Ahab or something -- those are all macho affectations.
I agree with you about Bush -- that's a very good picture you paint of him as "a tiny tot playing cowboy." Right on.
Would love to hear a Dallas gay Texan colloqialism put-down story if you have one.
Adam Ash.
Adam
I forgot that he shot his friend and willed him to apologize for it.
Sounds more like Satan than Wild Bill Hickok to me.
Adam
As for the colloquialisms... I couldn't possibly do them justice on "paper". Its in the presentation and accent. However its "ballsy", charming and quite transfixing. A different macho.
OH Clavos!!!
I read that definition and i am ill!!
How is it that you know such things. Yuck poooh!!
Some of us a visual indivisuals and oh my goodness, poooooh! Stinky!!
"Chaney is just mad and diabolical. Not macho at all."
- Zedd
"Cheney IS macho."
- Adam
Gotta agree with Zedd. Cheney's five deferments during the Vietnam War proves her right on this one.
"....that's why Bush stuffed his flight suit with sweat socks."
I take it that was BEFORE he deserted.
Is that a serious question?
I was referring to his phoney "mission accomplished" caper in 2003. Believe me, if he had deserted the Oval Office I would be cheering--as would 99% of the people on the planet outside of the US....
I suppose they are the same sweat socks he ejaculates into when Laura locks him out....
Zedd asks in #36:
How is it that you know such things. Yuck poooh!!
I went to grade school (about 50 years ago).
BTW, I didn't bring it up; I was just answering Stan's question, and figured it probably would be in the Urban Dictionary...
MCH
Keep hammering. Never stop!
Which is the more manly choice, to abandon your wife and two young children to go fight in a meaningless and ill-conceived war, or to find a way to legally avoid going to war so that you can help provide for your family?
Dave
Ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha aha ah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha ha Ha ha ha hooooo ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha aha aaaaaaah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha ha Ha ha wooooo woooo. Ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha aha ah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha Ha ha ha ha aha ha wow oh oh. Ha ha aha ah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha aha he heeeeeee he heee hee aha aha aha ha ha aha hoooo haaaaa hooo aha haha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha aha ah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha. Whew wow. Where's my lung?
Really, how much are you getting paid for this stuff?
Just a hypothetical for you, Zedd. Raising the question of which is more important, personal responsibility or the obligation for national service.
I know that moral issues like this are something you'd rather not challenge your brain with, but sometimes thinking is a good thing.
Dave
Aaaaaaah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha ha Ha ha wooooo woooo. Ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha aha ah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha Ha ha ha ha aha ha wow oh oh. Ha ha aha ah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha aha he heeeeeee he heee hee aha aha aha ha ha aha hoooo Ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha aha ah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha ha Ha ha ha hooooo ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha aha aaaaaaah aha aha aha ha ha aha aha haha ha ha ha Ha ha wooooo woooo. Ha ha ha ha aha ha ha
Stop it Dave. Your killing me, hoooo!!
Zedd;
NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Which is the more manly choice, to abandon your wife and two young children to go fight in a meaningless and ill-conceived war, or to find a way to legally avoid going to war so that you can help provide for your family?"
- Dave (Vox Populi) Nalle
Tell that to the families of the 58,000 who didn't come back, Nalle/Populi.
Ala Cheney, Rove, Gingrich, Limbaugh, Ashcroft, Wolofowitz, et al.
Tell it to their fatherless children who wished every day that those 58,000 had found a way not to go to Vietnam and die, MCH.
Dave
Or the hundreds of thousands of us who did go, and realized while there that we'd been had...
How do catergorize the following men on the macho scale? Ghandi, Vaclav Havel, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, Mandela, Jesus. These are the masculine role models I admire. With courage and integrity, they brought down empires.
#42: For a minute there, I thought Dave had seen the light on Iraq.
I do agree with him, however, that Vietnam was (ANOTHER) ill-conceived, futile, divisive, and undeclared war.
"Tell it to their fatherless children who wished every day that those 58,000 had found a way not to go to Vietnam and die, MCH."
- Dave
So are all your role models draft-dodgers, Nalle/Populi, or just the Republican chickenhawks?
Conservative morals:
1.Overstate the sin of not adhering to whatever it is that we want the masses to do.
2.Shape public opinion against those who believe otherwise.
3.Do the opposite yourself (your family and friends also) but have a legally acceptable reason for not doing it in case you get caught. who cares if its morally reprehensible. IT'S NOT A CRIME!
4.When you do get caught, change the subject and take over the original stance of the opposition, touting its morality. Make a point to highlight the immorality of doing what you had suggested and leave them baffled and too worn out, disgusted and appalled to challenge you.
Lee
His just trying to win an argument. He doesn't really care.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/61360)
You know, Adam, you raise a really good point in this article, about the inability so many people have in coming to terms with inner qualities they may be uncomfortable with - and I think it's more than just the feminine. But you really dilute the effectiveness of the argument by bringing up the same old political canards you harp on in article after article. If you could have focused on the main point of the article, without trivializing it through the same old snide comments, you might have really had something insightful here.
You also ignored the 800lb gorilla in the corner of the room, the fact that so many of the bright lights of the GOP actually ARE gay and not just ignoring their inner female, and that this is something which the party as a whole is comfortable with.
For that matter, what about Rudy Giuliani - you can't say he's got Sissyphobia, what with the dressing in drag and all - yet he's about as politically macho as they come.
Dave