Trump, Bolsonaro, and the toxic fraternity
Recently, Brazil's Supreme Court sentenced Jair Bolsonaro, a retired military officer and highly controversial former president, to 27 years in prison for leading the attempted coup d'état of January 8, 2023, and for several other crimes, including abolishing the rule of law and damaging public property.
Immediately, Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State and obsequious voice of his president, came out to rend his garments at this ruling, which he called a "witch hunt." Three months before this trial, which has enraged the Brazilian far right, Donald Trump made an unprecedented decision in the history of trade: raising tariffs on 3,800 products that Brazil exports to the United States to 50% for non-economic reasons. He claimed that Brazil was behaving badly, as if countries were mischievous creatures, and that it was mistreating "his friend Bolsonaro." If we take into account that Bolsonaro has become tireless in repeating that Trump treats him like a brother, we can add a nuance to the tariff mess: Trump is one brother defending another. An act of male "fraternity." The tariff hike was obviously a direct threat, blackmail, and an unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of a democratic and sovereign country; a threat that, as journalist Jamil Chade said, has objectives that have no relation to the US economy.
Almost everything has been said about Trump. That's why, in this case, I prefer to look at the Brazilian case from another angle: from that "fraternity" between two toxic and conspicuous masculinities represented by Bolsonaro and Trump, and from the response of a dialoguing masculinity like that of Lula da Silva.
Just as I was starting to think about it, I saw a guy in his twenties on my street wearing a T-shirt that said "Make Masculinity Great Again," an obvious nod to Trump's "Make America Great Again," which confirmed my theory that a certain way of doing politics, and a certain way of doing politics, and a certain way of doing more politics. I wanted to ask him what he meant by masculinity, but I didn't because I could smell a conflicting answer; these fragile masculinities that want to be "greatsThey have very thin skin.
Feminism has known for decades that it is necessary to study the issue of masculinities. There is a vast and interesting bibliography on the subject. We speak of masculinities in the plural because they are very diverse, but we know that without a transformation of the cultural construction of the male gender, we will hardly be able to transform the feminine. Since the 1960s and 1970s, several "men's movements" have emerged, some favorable to feminism, others, like the current ones, incils or the black pills, contrary and even violent. However, there is one that intrigues me: the Men's Mythopoetic Movement, which works on self-help themes from the psychoanalysis of Carl Jung, from a certain indigestion of diverse mythologies, and of which Robert Bly has been a prominent voice with books such as Iron John: A Book About Men (1990). The movement, quite active in the 1980s and 1990s, works through "masculinity camps" and rituals that are meant to strengthen male "fraternities" and the essence of "archetypal masculine energy." I'm interested in its intellectual veneer; furthermore, one of its leaders, Shepherd Bliss, was one of the first to use the concept of "toxic masculinity," as he believed that system-legitimized masculinity was detrimental to the masculine essence.
I don't know what the Mythopoetic Movement thinks of Trump and Bolsonaro, but it seems pretty clear that both are excellent representatives of that toxic masculinity, that is, arrogant, based on the dominance of force, whether physical or economic, without any respect or empathy for the vulnerability of others and dominated by a sullen "brother." On the other hand, Lula da Silva would represent in this conflict another form of masculinity for which I can't find a precise adjective (my colleague suggested cordial in the sense of "of the heart"), but more positive, open to the other, capable of cum pasio, which as Martha Nussbaum explained very well to us in Landscapes of thought, is much more than empathy, because it's not just understanding, it's "suffering with," sharing the pain. Lula's response to Trump's shocking glandulars was exemplary: "In this country, there is only one master who rules, and that is the people. I respect everyone and I demand respect," he declared. Not a single insult, not a single outburst. Lula hopes the tantrum will subside, or at least lessen in intensity, and open up the possibility of negotiation, but in the meantime, he's trying to strengthen ties with the BRICS. Hopefully, it will go well.
