As each day since the presidential inauguration has passed, I’ve found myself wondering more and more, “What’s wrong with straight white men?”* I feel like we’re living some version of “Revenge of the Straight White Men” because they are so threatened and upset by the advances of women, people of color, and LGBTQ people.
Somehow, straight white men seem to feel the small strides made toward equality for others have infringed on their God-given rights to have it all. So now we’re seeing a resurgence of a straight white bro culture that is overtly racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic — and that’s just in Trump’s appointees. Their embrace of toxic, racist misogyny and cultic masculinity have become the model for the discontented everyday men whose lives have not turned out to be the American dream they believed was their birthright simply for being straight white men.
Susan Shaw
For these men, power is a limited resource. They see power as power-over, the ability to control that comes with money, institutional authority, guns and physical dominance.
They feel entitled to that power over all the rest of us, and we see that clearly all around us: clergy abuse of children and women, the outlawing of abortion as a means to control women’s sexuality, bodies and reproductive capacity, the teaching of wives’ submission to their husbands, and blaming immigrants for failures of straight white men to fulfill their own fantasies of wealth, dominance and power.
For them, blaming vulnerable people over whom they can exercise dominance is much easier than blaming the real culprits — the billionaire class who profit from global capitalism and the exploitation of workers and the environment. Everyday straight white men identify with the power of the billionaire class even as they are exploited by it because it gives them the illusion that all straight white men gain power through their identification with these elite men as men.
It’s the same argument feminists pointed out decades ago about why men so embrace football. As the argument goes, men identify with the power of men in the NFL because “no woman will ever play in the NFL.” That’s makes all men more powerful than all women — even though most men never will play in the NFL either. By identifying with the maleness of the men in the NFL, other men claim the power of maleness and masculinity within patriarchal culture. Since some men can play in the NFL, and no women can, then all men can access male power through their identification as men.
“Power does not have to be defined as power-over.”
All this misses the point, however, that power does not have to be defined as power-over. Feminists rightly point out that power also can be power-to and power-with, which are limitless. These kinds of power are the powers of agency and relationship, of community and mutuality. The very kinds of power straight white male culture rejects as weak — and feminine.
Unfortunately, what straight white men miss is that they, too, are broken by the racist patriarchal system of global capitalism that blames vulnerable others for their struggles. Donald Trump is the epitome and embodiment of this kind of brokenness. He’s so broken that he is completely narcissistic and incapable of empathy, love, compassion, kindness and mercy. Those are now seen as weak values. Power-over feels good when you’re broken but it only breaks you more because it destroys something of your humanity.
Straight white men are broken by the very things they embrace — racial dominance, patriarchy, heteronormativity, nationalism and global capitalism.
They’ve even turned Jesus into one of themselves, even though Jesus came to heal them with a new set of values that rejects power-over in favor of love, justice, compassion, mercy and peace. Jesus had the opportunity in his temptation in the wilderness to have all the things straight white men seem to think are theirs, but Jesus rejected the path of power and dominance. Instead, he chose the way of love and justice that led to the Cross. His resurrection, then, was not a show of power but rather was God’s affirmation of Jesus’ choice of love over power.
“He’s so broken that he is completely narcissistic and incapable of empathy, love, compassion, kindness and mercy.”
As things in our nation continue to escalate toward ever greater injustice and harm, I wonder, what will it take for straight white men to be all right and stop harming everyone else? I think it must be a true conversion, a turning from the false promises of power-over and a recognition of our common humanity and our need for a community of all of us — God’s Beloved Community. This includes the “good” straight white men who also are appalled with Trump and his minions. These men also need to assess how they benefit from the current system and align themselves with all those under attack by Trump and his ilk. Are they, like Jesus, actually willing to lose straight white male power and privilege in order to identify with the targeted, vulnerable and oppressed? Conversion costs something.
In the meantime, we must remain steadfast in proclaiming a gospel of love, justice and peace. We must be those things in the face of our brothers’ brokenness. At the same time, we must call for accountability and responsibility, and we must work to ensure structures, policies and institutions work toward love and justice.
Our political engagement must match our religious faith. Like Jesus, we must say no to the temptation of power, the kingdoms of this world, and join in God’s eternal yes to love and justice for every single one of God’s children.
*Yes, yes, I know “not all men,” but the men who understand how white male power works also know that saying “not all men” is the easy out for avoiding their own responsibility for straight white male privilege and institutional power. I also know many women go along with bro culture (I’m looking at you MTG and Lauren Boebert) because they gain their own power from aligning themselves with dominant men, although it will always be a second-class kind of power within patriarchy.
Susan M. Shaw is professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore. She also is an ordained Baptist minister and holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Her most recent book is Intersectional Theology: An Introductory Guide, co-authored with Grace Ji-Sun Kim.
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