Senator Hawley’s “Manhood”: No Experience Required
By Kevin Howley, May 16, 2023
Hot off the press, Senator Josh Hawley’s new book, “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs,” premieres May 16. Subtlety isn’t Hawley’s style, so it comes as no surprise that the title of his latest tome speaks volumes to the fragile masculinity that cowers in the heart of MAGA country.
Like any self-serving public servant, the Missouri Republican’s motives for penning this manly manifesto are plain to see: burnishing his culture warrior cred and positioning himself as a potential running mate for the 2024 GOP ticket.
According to the book’s publisher, Regnery, in “Manhood,” Hawley “argues that the character of men and the male virtue that goes along with it is a necessary ingredient to a functioning society and a healthy, free republic.” Maybe so. But despite his best efforts, Hawley is having a hard time reclaiming his manhood ever since the J6 Committee aired his comical and cowardly disappearing act in the halls of the U.S. Capitol.
Readers may recall that Hawley broke the land speed record for sprinting away from the very same mob of insurrectionists that he riled up earlier in the day. Sort of puts the publisher’s promotional blurb in perspective.
The Back Story
Among other bromides, Hawley offers readers this bit of red meat: “A free society that despises manhood will not remain free.”
Writing from the frontlines of conservatives’ latest offensive in the culture war, Hawley trots out familiar tropes that are sure to appeal to the Republican base: from rehashing replacement theory talking points, to calling on American men to embrace “their God-given responsibility as husbands, fathers, and citizens.”
Never mind that Hawley infamously refused to embrace his constitutional responsibility to certify the results of the 2020 election. Instead, he joined a who’s who of Republicans – aka the Sedition Caucus – in a plot to overturn a free and fair election.
Praising Hawley at the time, the conservative news site 100% Fed Up decried the evils of cancel culture when Simon & Schuster declined to publish Hawley’s first book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech,” in the wake of his complicity in Trump’s failed coup.
Amplifying the Senator’s claims that the publisher’s decision was “Orwellian,” 100% Fed Up repeats this bit of unintentional irony from Hawley’s statement about being dumped: “Simon & Schuster is canceling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition.”
Say this for the junior senator from the Show-Me State, he knows a thing or two about flipping the script. And 100% Fed Up added, in bold no less, “Regnery, a free speech publisher, has stepped up to the plate and has agreed to publish Senator Hawley’s book.”
Fed Up Fangirls
The women behind 100% Fed Up, published by Leisa Audette and Patti McMurray, “two conservative moms and best friends,” are clearly fans of Hawley. Consider the word choice in these headlines describing Mr. Hawley’s “male virtues”:
BREAKING: Hawley Punches Back on Jan 6 ‘I Don’t Regret Anything’ – Jul 23, 2022
Hawley DESTROYS Delusional Professor Who Says Men Can Get Pregnant [VIDEO] – Jul 12, 2022
WATCH: Sen Hawley BLASTS Head of TSA For Letting Illegal Immigrants Fly Using Arrest Warrants – Jul 22, 2022
Sen Hawley DESTROYS Biden’s Lying Secretary of Energy for Attempting to Shift Blame on Gas Prices – May 20, 2022
Not to get all essentialist, but the MAGA moms at 100% Fed Up can’t get enough of conservative culture warriors like Hawley, punching, blasting, and destroying their way to freedom.
Oh to have a real man in the White House, now that Donald Trump – recently found liable for battery and defamation – has again demonstrated that he lacks what Hawley identifies as “defining strengths of men, including responsibility, bravery, fidelity, and leadership.”
Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture. His most recent book is Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.
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The Missouri Republican’s motives for penning this manly manifesto are to position himself as a potential running mate for the 2024 GOP ticket. But despite his best efforts, Hawley is having a hard time reclaiming his manhood ever since the J6 Committee aired his comical and cowardly disappearing act in the halls of the U.S. Capitol.
