I’m old enough to remember when the sexist stereotype of feminists was that they’re “humorless” and “shrill.” So it never fails to make me smile to hear Donald Trump, in ever-shriller tones, rant and rave about how much he hates Vice President Kamala Harris’ laugh. Her guffaws haunt him. We cannot doubt he’s kept up late at night, dwelling on his fear that a woman might be enjoying herself. At a rally in Asheville, North Carolina last week, Trump could not stop babbling furiously about Harris’s laugh.
“That’s a laugh of a person with some big problems,” Trump said, projecting his deep psychological issues onto his opponents, as usual. He insisted it’s “the laugh of a crazy person.”
It’s a far more effective strategy than earnest t-shirts proclaiming “the future is female.”
The Harris campaign was unfazed, following the speech with an email that read, “Donald Trump delivered what was supposed to be a speech focused on his economic plan but ended up resembling more of one unhinged man’s public airing of grievances.”
While every presidential election is a complex machine involving millions of people with their own idiosyncratic opinions, there is a simple, visually arresting contrast defining this one: Harris’ boisterous laugh versus Trump’s relentless scowling.
This isn’t just a personality difference between the two candidates, either. It speaks to a deeper cultural conflict that has been spooling out for years, with flashpoints like the #MeToo movement and the fight for abortion rights. It’s about women asserting they have a right to joy and freedom, and the backlash from outraged men. It’s about men who believe they’re entitled to women’s attention and even submission, and the women who laugh in their faces and say “no.”
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From the beginning, Trump’s campaign was sculpted to appeal to bitter male voters with a message of rage over losing their traditional dominance over women. As the Associated Press reported last week, “his campaign is counting on younger male voters” who reject mainstream news sources in favor of podcasts and online influencers. At the New York Times, journalist Zack Beauchamp described it more frankly as “a bunch of men who have become extremely resentful about the current state of gender affairs.” That’s why the campaign went with Sen. JD Vance of Ohio for Trump’s running mate. It’s not despite the endless number of clips of him disparaging women for being single, having jobs, or not having children. It’s because that’s the campaign’s message to this target demographic.
President Joe Biden tried to counterprogram this with a pro-woman message centered around protecting reproductive rights. It wasn’t connecting with voters, however, likely because he’s an elderly white man who has been hostile to abortion in the past. Harris, on the other hand, is much more persuasive as the messenger, and not just because she’s a younger woman. Her buoyant laugh is aspirational. Through her, women can feel like they’re laughing in the faces of the creeps and weirdoes who want to take away their freedom and happiness.
CNN polling expert Harry Enten recently laid out how these dynamics are affecting the race — and driving Harris up in the polls. Trump’s 9-point advantage with men has not budged in national polls. Harris, however, is outperforming Biden with women by quite a bit. Biden led with women by 4 points over Trump, but Harris is up 11 points over Trump with the ladies.
Trump’s response to this has been to double down on flinging sexist words at women. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported in the New York Times that Trump calls Harris “nasty” when on a microphone and the B-word in private. In response, Trump targeted Haberman — but notably not Swan — in a speech and on Truth Social with yet another misogynist slur: “Maggott. Hag. Erman.” (Yet he still eagerly takes her calls.) Vance, meanwhile, continues his tour of insulting every woman in America, suggesting to Laura Ingraham of Fox News that “normal” women don’t care about reproductive rights.
On “Pod Save America” Friday, host Jon Favreau suggested Trump “wants to draw” Harris “into a fight” with these insults, but she’s refusing to be baited. “She is barely talking about him,” Favreau added, “or she’s just talking about him like a washed-up entertainer.” It’s a far more effective strategy than earnest t-shirts proclaiming “the future is female.” Harris is showing, not telling, by modeling how the progressive vision of an egalitarian future isn’t just more fair, but more fun. She and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, demonstrate how much more relaxed and happy men and women are when they meet as equals and friends. Trump and Vance offer a grim and unappealing vision of gender relations, one where women are shuffling servants under the watchful eye of dour patriarchs.
This isn’t just a difference in vibes, but of substance. It can be seen, for example, in how the campaigns address concerns voters express about how hard it is for young people to start families.
On Friday, Harris unveiled an economic plan focused on giving young families a boost, with a $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers and a $6,000 tax credit for the first year of a baby’s life. She also proposed bringing back the child tax credit that Republicans in Congress let expire in 2021.
Vance has been especially outspoken on his belief that American women need to have more babies, but the Trump and Vance plan to make that happen is centered on compelling motherhood. Trump’s already made headway on the forced birth agenda, by appointing three out the six Supreme Court justices who voted to end abortion rights in 2022. Project 2025, the blueprint for what a second Trump administration would look like, details strategies to ban abortion nationally and restrict contraception access. Vance is also, famously, a big fan of shaming women for not having babies, calling them “miserable cat ladies” and “sociopathic” if they haven’t procreated.
Yes, Vance claims he supports the newborn tax credit, but as many Democrats swiftly pointed out, that’s probably a lie. Vance had an opportunity in the Senate to vote for the child tax credit, but he skipped the vote. He finds oodles of time to go on various TV shows and podcasts to insult women who haven’t had children, but when he had a real opportunity to ease the financial burden of young parents, he rejected it. In addition, Vance has spoken out loudly against affordable childcare, believing it’s up to mothers and even grandmothers to quit their jobs to raise kids instead.
The Democratic National Convention starts Monday and it will focus on issues that matter to women and men who care about women. Harris is particularly skilled at putting an issue like abortion rights into a larger constellation of policies aimed at freeing women to make their own choices. The convention is also widely expected to be a joyous occasion, with a steady stream of images of happy people — especially women — both on the stage and in the crowd. It’s bound to drive Trump nuts, likely compelling him to spew even more misogynist vitriol at Harris and her female supporters. He sent more than 25 posts to his Truth Social followers on Sunday. Trump will get worse this week, but it’s a safe bet that instead of getting unnerved by it, Harris will keep laughing in his face.
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