style="font-size:15px;"> 188
184
189 185
190 186
191 187
192 188
193 189
194 190
195 191
196 192
197 193
198 194
199 195
200 196
201 197
202 198
203 199
204 200
205 201
206 236
207 237
208 238
209 239
210 240
211 241
212 242
213 243
214 244
Political Masculinity
How Incels, Fundamentalists and Authoritarians Mobilize for Patriarchy
SUSANNE KAISER
Translated by Valentine A. Pakis
polity
Originally published in German as Politische Männlichkeit. Wie Incels, Fundamentalisten und Autoritäre für das Patriarchat mobilmachen © Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin 2020. All rights reserved by and controlled through Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin.
This English edition © Polity Press, 2022
The translation of this work was supported by a grant from the Goethe-Institut.
Polity Press
65 Bridge Street
Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK
Polity Press
101 Station Landing
Suite 300
Medford, MA 02155, USA
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-5082-1
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021948547
The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press.
However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.
Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.
For further information on Polity, visit our website:
Dedication
For Jakob, Daniel and Luca
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Jakob Krais, Renata Jakovac, Laurence Erdur, Jule Govrin, Elise Landschek and Marion Kaiser for reading my manuscript so closely, honestly critiquing my arguments, and intensely discussing the topics at hand. Without their help, the book would not be what it is. My gratitude also extends to my editor, Christian Heilbronn, who dug deeply into the material presented here and put his heart and soul into the text.
Introduction
The images that circulated around the world during the final days of the Trump era will long remain in the collective memory: images of enraged white men storming the Capitol Building and rioting in the chambers of Congress and in the offices of elected officials, all while the cameras were rolling. Five people died, and numerous others were injured. These images are iconic because they stand for so much of what had become the political programme during the presidency of Donald Trump. The footage and photographs of the events at the Capitol provide, in a condensed form, a scathing testimony to the times.
It is hardly a coincidence that the vast majority of the rioters were men. Moreover, they were men playacting as men, complete with paramilitary garb: in the photographs, we see militiamen in full battle gear, including bulletproof vests, automatic weapons and combat helmets. In addition, we also see a topless shamanistic warrior with a pelt around his waist and a horn helmet on his head – all while brandishing a spear. We also see QAnon supporters, Proud Boys and members of the Boogaloo movement wearing Hawaiian shirts either over or under their bulletproof vests. Many of these men are carrying Confederate flags, waving around Nazi iconography or wearing gas masks familiar from the world wars. The wackier the outfit, the clearer it is to see just how overexaggerated the militant ideal of masculinity has become. Because it was such a central feature of politics during the Trump era, militant masculinity has become a caricature.
All of these men have one thing in common: they are at war. Against what or whom, exactly, is made explicitly clear in the images themselves, and especially by those from the office of Nancy Pelosi. It is no coincidence that, of all places, the workplace of the highest-ranking American woman then in office stood at the centre of the riots. In the images, the men are pictured staging a denigration of Pelosi for the press photographers: one man, who prototypically embodies the stereotype of the ‘old
