Man enough?

"The big story about gender in the 2016 presidential year was supposed to be about Hillary Clinton, and her quest to become the first woman president of the United States. Then Donald Trump s candidacy for the Republican nomination took off, and the narrative took an unexpected turn. Gender was still a central force to be reckoned with, but contrary to the popular understanding of gender as synonymous with women, the gender issue at the heart of the Trump phenomenon had less to do with women and more to do with men. Trump s appeal was rooted in right-wing populism and know-nothing racism, but it was also based on his performance of a kind of can-do white masculinity that had been in decline in recent decades. Like Ronald Reagan, Trump understood implicitly that the desire for a strong, virile man in the White House runs deep in the American DNA. His supporters confirmed this every time they opened their mouths: He tells it like it is. He's his own man. He's not politically correct.^ He's got balls. In other words, it's time to return a real man to the White House. To date, most conversations about gender and the presidency have focused on the special challenges women presidential c