Media Swoon Over ‘Second Gentleman’ Emhoff’s ‘Masculinity’

[Craving even more FPM content? Sign up for FPM+ to unlock exclusive series, virtual town-halls with our authors, and more. Click here to sign up.]

From presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ incessant cackling to running mate Tim Walz’s overexuberant stage theatrics, Democrats have become the Party of Cringe. And among their most cringeworthy behavior is the media’s fawning but calculated adoration of Doug “Second Gentleman” Emhoff as a new icon of modern “masculinity.”

I recently wrote about the Left-leaning media’s coordinated narrative hyping the Democrat Party’s “21^st century masculinity” – a model of manhood seen entirely through a feminist lens. The aim of this narrative was to promote Emhoff and Walz as masculine ideals because of their willingness to defer to, and to support, female leadership.

The Harris campaign and its media collaborators are still pushing that narrative in a desperate effort to reassure the crucial bloc of male voters that it’s not unmanly to vote for a woman as President. In a recent interview with “Second Gentleman” Emhoff, for example, MSNBC host Jen Psaki – who, as a former White House Press Secretary for Joe Biden is no stranger to propaganda – gushed about him being seen by many as single-handedly reworking the idea of masculinity.

“People have talked about your role is, how your role has reshaped the perception of masculinity,” Psaki said. “I’m not sure you planned on that, but you are an incredibly supportive spouse. Has that been an evolution for you? Do you think that’s part of the role you might play as first gentleman?”

Apart from the fact that this is not a serious line of questioning, let’s get real: literally no one outside of the Harris campaign or the small network of obsequious talking heads like Psaki is seriously musing about how the Second Gentleman is “reshaping” masculinity. “Masculine role model” is simply not a phrase that leaps to mind when one is listening to, looking at, or thinking about Doug Emhoff.

But instead of feeling humble and awkward about discussing his masculinity, as actual manly men would, Emhoff dutifully seized the opportunity. He replied to Psaki, “It’s funny. I’ve started to think a lot about this. I’ve always been like this. My dad’s always been like this. To me, it’s the right thing to do, support women. It is mutual with Kamala and I [sic]. We support each other, we have each other’s back.”

Fact check: Emhoff and the Democrat Party did not pioneer the idea of being supportive of one’s wife, but it’s important for them to paint conservative men as misogynistic Neanderthals who are on the wrong side of evolution.

He added, “I’ve said many times when we lift up women, we support women, whether it’s pay equity, child care, family leave, and all of these issues in this post-Dobbs hellscape. Women should not be less than. Women should not have less [sic] rights and be treated differently. That’s not the American way.”

Fact checks: 1) the gender pay gap has long been debunked as a myth; 2) America in the wake of the Dobbs decision is not a “hellscape” for pregnant women, who can still kill their unborn in most states; 3) women do not have fewer rights than men in America.

Psaki was subsequently slammed on social media for the softball interview. “​​Psaki to Doug Emhoff: ‘You reshaped the perception of masculinity’ PS: He impregnated his kid’s nanny,” popular conservative X account End Wokeness posted Sunday, referring to the scandal of Emhoff’s affair during his first marriage, which resulted in him impregnating his family’s nanny, who subsequently aborted the child.

Colin Rugg, co-owner of Trending Politics, wrote, “MSNBC: We are a serious news network and not propaganda. Also MSNBC: Hey Doug, here is a very difficult question. You completely reshaped masculinity. How does that feel?”

Another X user posted, “Another softball interview. Psaki couldn’t be laying on the obsequious and undeserved praise any thicker while interviewing low-testosterone Doug Emhoff. Apparently, ‘reshaping masculinity’ is getting your nanny pregnant.”

Radio host Bill Adams observed, “I have a very serious question: what is it with democrats and emasculation of men?”

“JeffSC” posted on X, “I’m sorry but if you don’t find this guy the sexiest bastard since John Stamos then you are just jealous. FFS Liberals are insane.”

Psaki wasn’t the only female swooning over Doug “Hunk, a Hunk of Burnin’ Love” Emhoff last week. During a segment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday, contributor Katty Kay spoke about her podcast interview with him, in which Emhoff talked about giving up his career as a lawyer when Harris had the opportunity to become Biden’s running mate in 2020.

“What would you say to young men who the Trump campaign is appealing to with a kind of slightly retro, macho view of what masculinity is?” Kay asked. “Young men who might want to be in a position one day of supporting their spouse but are worried that it would diminish their own masculinity? Do you think now that you’re in a position to reach those young men?”

“It’s something I think about all the time,” Emhoff responded. “For me, it just came very naturally. I think it’s the era we kind of grew up in… For me it was very normal… and I think that’s why Kamala and I really bonded.” A moment later he added, “Women succeeding doesn’t hurt men. It actually helps all of us… the economics prove it out.”

Fact check: the Marxist campaign to eradicate the distinctions between male and female, turning women into careerist girlbosses and stripping men of the purpose and roles that give their lives meaning, does not help all of us. The disastrous social consequences prove this out.

Kay went on to tell Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski that Emhoff is hoping his representation of masculinity will attract more male supporters to the campaign: “He hopes that, leading by example, by talking about the fact that he loves his wife, that you can make space for women to the rise to the top and it won’t diminish your masculinity.”

Like everything else the Democrat elites think, this is out of touch with the electorate. The male voters the Dems are so desperate to court don’t want their masculinity to be defined through a feminist framework.

Kay added that there seem to be “two different views of masculinity. There’s this kind of alpha, retro view of masculinity we’re seeing from the Trump campaign, and then you got Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff, who are both professional men but are in sort of supportive roles of a woman who’s the principal candidate.”

Kay didn’t explain what’s wrong with an alpha, retro view of masculinity, but presumably it’s not sufficiently gynocentric for a progressive movement whose motto is “The future is female.” Traditional masculinity celebrates men in their heroic, dangerous roles as protectors, providers, leaders, builders, explorers, warriors, and first responders. A society that does not honor or value those roles but dismisses them as “toxic” or “obsolete” is a doomed society.

Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior