Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:15:48.718Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Banter, Male Bonding, and the Language of Donald Trump

from Part III - The Interactive Making of the Trumpian World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

Janet McIntosh
Affiliation:
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
Norma Mendoza-Denton
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access

Summary

Shortly before the presidential election, the Washington Post released a videotape from 2005 in which Donald Trump described “grabbing [women] by the pussy.” Trump dismissed the exchange as “locker-room banter,” meaning a non-serious, not necessarily truthful and thus essentially harmless exchange of a kind that is common when men talk among themselves. This chapter analyzes this type of “banter,” among (presumptively) heterosexual men talking about sex, as a ritualized social practice which helps to maintain and reproduce a “fratriarchal” form of structural male dominance. The chapter also considers what the videotape adds to our understanding of Trump’s communication style and his speaking persona, along lines of class and masculinity. Vulgarity and “lewdness” are among the linguistic resources the wealthy Trump has deployed in his bid to be seen by less privileged Americans, especially disaffected White working-class men, as a “man of the people.” While the language he used on the tape may have damaged his prospects with some voters, it made him seem more appealing to others.

Type
Chapter
Information
Language in the Trump Era
Scandals and Emergencies
, pp. 158 - 167
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

CBS News. 2016. “Trump Defends Crude Language from 2005 as ‘Locker Room’ Talk.” Online video clip. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFEqVARTYkY.Google Scholar
Dunbar, Robin. 1996. Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fahrenthold, David A. 2016. “Trump Recorded Having Extremely Lewd Conversation about Women in 2005.” The Washington Post, October 7, 2016. https://wapo.st/2dSk1nD.Google Scholar
Gregory, S. 2016. “Trump Dismisses His ‘Locker Room Talk’ As Normal. Athletes Say It’s Not.” Time, October 11, 2016. https://time.com/4526039/donald-trump-locker-room-athletes/.Google Scholar
Jacobs, B., Siddiqui, S, and Bixby, S, 2016. “‘You Can Do Anything’: Trump Brags on Tape about Using Fame to Get Women,” The Guardian, October 8, 2016. https://bit.ly/34uRUoQ.Google Scholar
Kiesling, Scott F. 2001. “Playing the Straight Man: Displaying and Maintaining Male Heterosexuality in Discourse.” In Language and Sexuality: Contesting Meaning in Theory and Practice, edited by Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn, Podesva, Robert J., Roberts, Sarah J., and Wong, Andrew, pp. 249–66. Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1988. The Sexual Contract. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Sanday, Peggy Reeves. 2007. Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus. 2nd edn. New York University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Umbach, Maiken, and Humphrey, Mathew. 2018. Authenticity: The Cultural History of a Political Concept. Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Way, Niobe. 2013. Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×