Readers React: Donald Trump’s petty masculinity

To the editor: Kudos to Stephen Marche for discussing masculine overcompensation. What was left out, though, is its negative effects on women. (“Donald Trump is a parody of American manhood — and that’s what lifts him,” Opinion, May 27)

Masculine overcompensation essentially is ordering women to idolize, aggrandize and basically fall “in love” with those men, based on nothing except those men’s desire to be idolized, aggrandized and loved by women. What should be axiomatically apparent is that no one can force that of anyone else, through what ends up being nothing more than sexist and misogynist bigotry against women in the case of masculine overcompensation. After all, why would any woman love a sexist and misogynist bigot?

Likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claims, “Women love me.” Well, I’m a woman, and I detest and have zero respect for him and all other men with that self-serving, self-centered and self-aggrandizing agenda. Love embodies mutual respect, and that must be both earned and reciprocated, or it’s not mutual.

Julie-Beth Adele, Long Beach

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To the editor: I want to thank Marche for helping me decide how to cast my vote in November. Although I did not see any “MD” or “Ph.D.” after his name, Marche’s analysis of Trump seems to be right on.

The point that finally convinced me was Marche’s statement that Trump does not know how to wear a tie. He uses an old-fashioned Windsor knot, and his tip hangs four inches below his belt.

It’s a sad state of affairs when we base political decisions on fashion advice from someone who writes for Esquire magazine. If we are to base our voting on the length of a tie and the type of knot used, then we have some serious problems in determining the qualities of a candidate.

Thankfully, we have watchdogs like Marche to save us.

Jerry Hendrix, Simi Valley

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To the editor: It didn’t take long to spot the word-twisting that the left-wing media engage in so enthusiastically.

The caption under the large picture of Trump and anti-Trump protestors squaring off read in part, “The likely GOP nominee unleashed his anti-immigration vitriol.” Nice try.

Nothing in the Republican Party’s platform or in the presumptive nominee’s policy proposals is “anti-immigration.” We are a nation of immigrants, and that includes my own family. The key word so obviously and regularly excluded is “illegal.”

Wiping that from our lexicon has helped the Democrats. The Times aids and abets that party’s fantasy.

Janet Price, Sherman Oaks

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