Opinion | The Ancient Roots of Trump’s Attacks on Harris
www.nytimes.com
The Trump campaign’s attacks on Kamala Harris echo misogynistic attacks on ancient Roman empresses and medieval queens.

The Romans loved a conspiracy theory, and rumors of women-led cover-ups pepper their history. This motif took hold most robustly in the peculiar conditions of the early Roman Empire, as the male aristocrats who’d once ruled the Roman Republic became concerned that women were co-opting power that was rightfully male.

…

The long dominance of the classical education system threaded these clichés throughout Western thought and provided a blueprint for anxious characterizations of female power.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
    33·
    3 months ago

    Trump isn’t consciously recreating ancient defamation schemes. He hasn’t even read the book he paid a guy to write in his name, much less about fallen european civilizations.

  • Wrench@lemmy.world
    23·
    3 months ago

    This is a ridiculous narrative.

    Trump is sexist and racist. His base is sexist and racists. This isn’t even debatable, it’s about undeniable as you can get without them literally explicitly stating that’s their motivation under oath.

    It’s also extremely likely that Trump idolized Hitler and is trying to use his playbook. And a bunch of “conservative” groups doing the same. There is plenty of evidence to support this.

    Just fucking call it what it is instead of trying to draw parallels to ancient history.

    “Trump is trying to campaign on sexism, racism, and xenophobia to rally the racists and misogynists, in an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle the same way Hitler did, in order to establish himself as a dictator”

    Is that so fucking hard to say directly?

    • Zloubida@lemmy.world
      8·
      3 months ago

      I’m not American but I tend to agree with you. However this article is still quite interesting because it explains why this kind of rhetorics works, even with “normal” people. Sexism is structural and cultural, not only personal.

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
    14·
    3 months ago

    Is this article trying to normalize Trump’s demonization of powerful women?

    Odd thing is, the author stopped at the Roman Empire. I guess that means they’ve had their daily thoughts about the Roman Empire?

    First nation that comes to mind for me is Israel, between the single ruling queen, Athaliah, who attempted to kill all the male competition for the throne, and references to Jezebel, Michal, and other non-ruling queens painted as powers behind the throne that caused failure in the ruling kings.

    But I’m pretty sure you could go back further than that; any patriarchal society is going to do the same thing.