Arizona Governor Candidate Kari Lake: 'There's No Such Thing as Toxic Masculinity'
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Kari Lake, a former local news anchor and current Republican nominee for governor in Arizona, insisted that “there’s no such thing as toxic masculinity” and that the term is a “bunch of BS” at an event called Black Voices for Kari Lake on Monday, The New Republic reported. At the event, hosted by former NFL player Jack Brewer and where“Power” by Kanye West reportedly played as Lake walked on stage, the candidate also made a number of racist dog whistles about Black families, absent fathers, and the necessity of “strong fathers” for “strong women.” (The comments notably echoed those of Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who as we all know isn’t exactly Father of the Year.)
It’s pretty funny to hear a Republican candidate in a state grappling with a near-total abortion ban deny the existence of toxic masculinity, while her party embraces candidates like Herschel Walker, who once held a gun to his wife’s head, and campaigns with incel king Jordan Peterson and platforms Andrew Tate. Just look around, ma’am!
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Peterson, a manosphere blogger who preaches to young men about their entitlement to sex from and dominance over women, recently spoke at a fundraising event for Pennsylvania Senate candidate (and New Jersey resident) Dr. Oz and Nevada Senate candidate Andrew Laxalt, with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s car glistening in the background. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), currently in a tight reelection race, has repeatedly lavished praise on Peterson, whose writings talk about human women like animals for conquest. “I know he’s said some politically incorrect things and the left hates him, so that was OK in my book,” Johnson said of Peterson at an event in Green Bay, Wisconsin, last week, in audio obtained by Jezebel.
Peterson, you’ll recall, advocates for “enforced monogamy,” and has essentially blamed heightened violence from incels—typically abusive men who feel sexually rejected—on women for not sleeping with the men who incidentally want to kill us. He is, according to Johnson, a “smart” guy, and, to Oz and Laxalt, someone worthy of featuring at events.
Meanwhile, Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance is a key investor in the conservative YouTube alternative Rumble, which proudly platforms Tate, even after the men’s rights influencer has been banned from every other platform for encouraging rape and violence against women as a means to assert male dominance. Tate is being investigated for rape in Romania and was once kicked off Big Brother for beating a woman.
Now, what was that about the concept of toxic masculinity being “a bunch of BS?”
Of course, despite these prime examples of some of the most visible candidates in her own party embracing the standard-bearers for toxic masculinity, it’s not as if Lake is bothered by any of this. Lake, mind you, is the same woman who’s insisted throughout the campaign trail that “God did not create us [women] to be equal to men, He didn’t create us to do what the guys do.” Other comments in the same vein from Lake include: “We conservative women love our men, we don’t want to conquer them, we don’t want to be equal to them,” last June, and, “We aren’t equal to men. Women are different than men,” last November. She re-stated all of this at a campaign event just last month.
Lake may be determined to believe toxic masculinity is a feminist sham, as if men aren’t killing thousands of women each year for telling them “no,” and the perpetrators of numerous shootings and killings targeting women in recent years (including the Parkland shooter) didn’t reference and praise Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger. But maybe Lake will, at some point, concede that some form of toxic femininity—excusing and celebrating awful behaviors from men and actively upholding the patriarchy for her own individual benefit—certainly exists. She need only look in the mirror for a prime example of this.
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