Allison Hanes: After Trump's victory, we can't ignore the danger of male supremacy

Article content Two days after the U.S. election returned Donald Trump to power, I attended StoryFest, an annual lecture series that raises funds for Hudson’s Greenwood Centre for Living History.

The featured author was Elizabeth Renzetti, a former Globe and Mail journalist. Her latest book is What She Said: Conversations About Equality , which is of course about faltering progress and the work left to do. When I bought my ticket weeks ago, I had hoped the event might turn into a celebration of a major milestone for women.



Alas, the discussion was more of a group therapy session for an audience trying to catch its breath after a result that felt like a sucker punch to the gut. How did Americans choose a convicted felon who has been found liable for sexual abuse over a bright, accomplished, competent woman? There was a lot of head-shaking about the role of misogyny and racism in the resounding defeat of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Besides a sense of incomprehension, there was a yearning for reassurance that things are different here — that we’re not about to wake up in Gilead, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian society from The Handmaid’s Tale where women are breeding machines and second-class citizens.

After all, equality has been a cherished value since Quebec emerged from under the thumb of the Catholic Church during the Quiet Revolution, right? We have pioneered some of the most family-friendly policies in North America, like benefits for both parents after the birth of a child and subsidized daycare that boosts Quebec women’s participation in the labour force . And in the wake of Trump’s victory, the National Assembly voted unanimously on a largely symbolic motion to reaffirm the right to abortion in Quebec , where we already have a park named after Dr. Henry Morgentaler in Montreal .

But over the weekend, Quebecers faced a further reality check. We were formally introduced to the masculinist movement, and the extent to which it is infiltrating our supposedly egalitarian society. We’re not talking retrograde mononcle sexism here, but an overt way of life in which success is measured in money, muscles, adherence to traditional gender roles — and dominance over women.

A documentary titled Alphas premièred (en français) on Télé-Québec Monday night , examining how popular hyper-male influencers like Andrew Tate — and several homegrown Québécois versions — are reshaping the attitudes of young men. And everybody’s talking about Tout le monde en parle’s decision to interview Simon Coutu, the journalist in the documentary, along with two of these influencers Sunday night. Actually, make that one Quebec alpha: a petition that denounced giving the mic to these masculinists pressured TLMEP to disinvite one and bring on an academic who studies the backlash to feminism instead.

Before and since the episode aired, debate has seesawed between whether one of Quebec’s most popular talk shows was offering a platform for toxic discourse or shedding light on an alarming phenomenon many people, especially parents of teen boys, might not be aware of. Personally, I don’t see how Radio-Canada or Télé-Québec can be accused of normalizing the message of masculinism when the president-elect of the United States mused during his campaign about pointing guns at the face of a female critic (former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney), referred to a rival as the B-word (former speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi) and used a flurry of insults to denigrate his opponent (Harris). Trump speaks directly to, and borrows from, a movement that expressly elevates men and puts down women.

We all just got a rude awakening about the extent to which the American public embraces this kind of rhetoric. What the documentary Alphas accomplishes is to show that we’re not immune. We have our own cast of social media influencers and podcasters peddling male power under the guise of conservative family values or economic prowess to legions of disaffected men.

Et en bon français québécois. There has been a lot of introspection and analysis in the wake of Trump’s election about what fuels this macho tidal wave of support ; why so many men are angry and disillusioned with the status quo. The documentary should prompt similar soul-searching.

These are important questions that may cut to the heart of why some men gravitate toward gangs, drop out of school, are consumed by addiction or commit suicide, among other harmful behaviours. Alphas shows how hyper-masculinists are addressing a crisis among men who are no longer sure of their status in society. It also demonstrates that influencers selling solutions to perceived inadequacies are serving as the worst possible role models and creating an alarming template for manhood.

Tate, held up as an icon by millions, is facing charges of human trafficking and rape in Romania. Spoiler alert: The documentary ends on a slightly more hopeful note. One Quebec influencer says he’s fallen out from under Tate’s spell, realizing he’s just a manipulator.

But there are many more followers and imitators where he came from. The disenfranchisement of many men may be legitimate, but it’s no excuse for hating women or transgender people. Glorifying male supremacy and promoting the dehumanization of half the population is dangerous.

We’ve already seen first-hand where extreme anti-woman sentiment can lead. We may have a woman wrapping up her second term in the mayor’s office in Montreal, but a would-be assassin once sought to kill Quebec’s only ever female premier on the night she was elected. One of the world’s first mass femicides occurred in Montreal when a gunman shot dead 14 women at École Polytechnique in 1989 — because they were women.

In the 35 years since the Montreal massacre, we’d finally recognized this as festering misogyny. But the legacy of equality that was supposed to flow from these painful lessons now seems to have drifted beyond our grasp. The health, safety, rights and dignity of women are facing new threats.

Much of what we hold dear is unravelling as someone who unabashedly appeals to hyper-masculinists gets set to assume one of the most powerful offices in the world. So we can’t afford to ignore the Alphas in our midst. ahanes@postmedia.

com.