Kamala Harris's Style is Designed to Appeal to Women

but can that win the election

One thing that has struck me, watching Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention and in her other public appearances, is that her speech is very feminine. When people sneer at her “word salad” they are actually complaining about the female approach to speech.

Of course, I am a “far-right” racist-sexist-homophobe, so I would say that.

In fact, I don’t say it in a pejorative sense. I believe that the discursive speaking style of women, covering feelings and small details, is probably a vital survival thing that goes way back. It’s probably important for women to discuss the details of food preparation and child-raising and what the other women in the community think and be sensitive to small changes in the behavior of those they love.

Back in the day women politicians made it a point to emphasize their toughness: Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir. Not any more, and not now that women dominate the administration of education.

So I believe that it is a natural progression that today’s women politicians — especially liberal women politicians — emphasize their femininity and their empathy. It’s all part of Georg Simmel’s notion that women would change the public square to suit a more feminine sensibility.

And now we are learning that young women are trending liberal while young men are trending conservative.

The difference in percentage of women identifying liberal/very liberal compared to men increased from 3 points in the 2001–2007 period to 15 points in the 2017–2024 period.

I’d say that the safetyism and microaggression movement has a lot to do with this. Women expect to be protected: thus safetyism. Women are really insulted by direct insult or criticism: thus microaggressions. Thus the public square created by women administrators in schools and universities taps directly into the instincts of young women.

But young men hate it. Back in the day, “Youthful masculinity was afforded a certain kind of poetic glory in the West.” Not any more.

The very virtues that were once celebrated and idolized by the bards and poets are now depicted as vices by the modern social and cultural regime…

In practice, this manifests as both an attack on young men specifically and an attack on masculinity in general — not just on the “gender norms” we hear about incessantly today, but on the masculine virtues and ways of viewing and interacting with the world.

So, writes Nate Hochman,

A University of Michigan survey tracking the political views of twelfth-grade boys and girls dating back to the 1970s found a sharp and drastic divergence to the right among young men starting around 2015 — and a sharp and drastic divergence to the left among young women around the same time.

Now this year’s presidential election pits a woman who is presenting herself as feminine — unlike, say, Hillary Clinton — against a man who presents himself as the archetype male hero. And as if to prove it songsters — white and black — are producing popular songs celebrating Trump’s heroic profile, like “Fighter” and “Bulletproof Trump.”

I imagine that women just feel comfortable with Kamala Harris — the “vibe.” And you will remember how back in 2016 women hated the way Trump presented himself. It wasn’t the issues so much as the macho rudeness and insults.

Women hate macho men. But women expect to be protected. Go figure.

Of course, Harris’s feminine word salads turn men off.

And the question for political experts is whether Kamala Harris should be reaching out to men in the next 30 days, or just making sure that as many women as possible vote for her.

They say that first, a politician needs to nail down the base. And then reach out to the middle. But what do I know?

I also believe that politics is a guy thing, because fighting the enemy. So I believe that at some point, there will be a reset back to politics as the world of macho men. The only question is the butcher’s bill.