Combat sports promoter and Trump ally Dana White recently gave a revealing window into the deeply self-conscious, macho id that informs the MAGA movement.
Through companies like the Ultimate Fighting Championship, White has built a large, mostly male audience. That platform has been the basis for him to fashion himself as a spokesperson for manhood and to associate himself with others who have done the same, like manosphere influencer Andrew Tate. White has also used it to help position Donald Trump in similar terms to that audience.
So when White opines on what manhood supposedly is or isn’t, it offers insight into the perspective of some men in the MAGA movement, which is deeply obsessed with performative masculinity. That’s why I found it pitiful to see him publicly berating men who openly discuss their mental health.
White delivered his commentary, fittingly, on the podcast of MAGA influencer Katie Miller, who is married to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. White, after saying it’s a “man’s job” to make sure a woman feels “safe” and is “treated right,” admitted that his idea of masculinity is “toxic” and railed against men who talk about their feelings:
I hate this whole men’s mental health bulls— that they talk about. Unfortunately, when you’re a man, you are the provider. You are the one that takes care of your family. You know, you are the example for your kids when they grow up — and your sons, you know, and your daughters. And unfortunately, you can’t be that guy that — I see these guys posting on social media, “I had a bad day and I’m so sad” and all this other crazy shit.
After Miller said men who bring up their mental health are “unattractive,” White responded, “It’s unattractive to other males, let alone other women.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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