If vanity is the underbelly of masculinity, a vulnerable area between the armor of masculinity and the kill zone, it appears that it was Donald J. Trump's famous self-esteem that was targeted when Nikki Haley escalated her attacks on her opponent in NY. Hampshire this week.
Shortly after Trump appeared to confuse Haley in a speech with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a Friday night rally in New Hampshire, Haley pounced. Using a strategy straight out of the “Mean Girls” playbook (chapter title: “The Underminer”), Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, wondered aloud at a conference of press whether the former president would be “in it” enough to lead the nation.
“My parents are older and I love them very much,” Haley said, conjuring up an image of wobbly old men swinging on the porch. “But when you see them reach a certain age, there is a decline. “That’s a fact: ask any doctor, there is a decline.”
It is well established that many factors, both social and genetic, affect how and when we decline and even at what rate. Few barbs, however, have more consistent power to wound the vanity of men of any age than those which cast doubt upon their potency, real or imagined, mental or otherwise.
“There are so many legitimate faults, so many valid ammunition that Haley could use in her fight against Trump,” said Sari Botton, editor of Oldster Magazine, an online publication on aging. “Why stoop to harassment with ageist tropes?”
The answer is simple. The body has been at the center of American political life since Trump, now 77, first threw his hat into the ring in 2015. More often than not, the body was that of a woman: dissected, ridiculed, skewered by Trump with unadorned weapons. happiness.
What's new here is not simply the inversion of old sexist tropes, but the zeal with which Haley, 52, now one of the last remaining contenders for the Republican nomination, has taken every opportunity to flex her own vigor and contrast it with the of an aging male body, which, in the event of a confrontation between Trump and President Biden, would be the only type. (It's worth noting here that all Republican candidates have criticized President Biden's age and physical condition, sparing Mr. Trump similar attacks.)
Consider the choreography of Ms. Haley's hyperkinetic hand gestures, the way she punches the air, moving in sweeping motions, swinging her arms in wide arcs, frequently using her thumb and forefinger as if to catch thoughts in the air. air. She keeps viewers' eyes fixed on her at all times, a strategy rarely seen among high-profile female politicians, who are trained to keep her movements calm and steady. Not for Haley, Merkel's so-called rhombus, that serene hand gesture always associated with the former German chancellor. Joining her thumbs and forefingers at the midpoint of her body, Angela Merkel routinely created what looked like an energy-centered diamond: a power mudra. Mrs. Haley, on the other hand, is a human fury and never more so when she is on the attack.
Underscoring the cognitive deficiencies of an aging opponent is certainly a “cheap shot,” as Oldster's Botton said. And it's something that may do little to help her recover from a blowout loss in New Hampshire. Still, Haley's age-baiting strategy has at least one instructive effect, which can be seen every time Trump mispronounces her name again. Does anyone think Trump believes Nikki Haley is called Nimbra, his garbled version of Nimrata, her birth name? Or is it equally likely that his supposed mistake is an indication of wounded vanity?
