The cheugasity of Vladimir Putin

so cheugy

I’m writing this post on my way to Pennsylvania to deliver a speech at Kutztown University to celebrate Women’s History Month. It isn’t lost on me that while we are celebrating the remarkable achievements of women throughout the world, we are at the same time witnessing the last gasp of patriarchal male leadership with Vladimir Putin’s heartless war against innocent Ukrainian civilians and their democratically elected government. 

It’s a travesty that even after a global pandemic, where the reputation and steadfastness of female politicians around the world was put on display, that we are now seeing the consequences of weaponized hyper-masculinity. It wasn’t long ago that we were lauding the accomplishments of female leaders for how their leadership contrasted with the bravado and incompetence of countless men who compared something as useful as wearing a mask to weakness. Strong and caring female leaders got us out of the last crisis that was Covid-19 and yet here is a guy whose leadership is diametrically opposed to any of those qualities dangling his nuclear willy around and killing innocent men, women and children in the service of his fragile ego. Putin is inhumane— he is also cheugy. He’s trying way too hard to be a 20th century strong man in a 21st century gender-fluid world.

Kenneth Reading @KennethReading

Vladimir Putin topless horseback riding #UnpopularCircusActs

Putin has spent the last few years being so insecure about his performance of manhood that he has lied about how many hockey goals he scored, and has even called the paps on himself when he rides large animals topless. Still, as I write this Ukrainian President Zelensky stays and fights from Ukraine while Putin takes Zoom calls with his staff somewhere in Moscow. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love the Cuomosexual vibes of posts eroticizing and romanticizing him, but he does stand in sharp contrast to Putin’s overbearing male fragility. Zelensky represents an updated and more modern kind of man, one that seems tougher despite a smaller army and military resources. I get the sense that he is the type of leader who would never say his button was “bigger” and “stronger” than Putin’s even if he had the larger army and a nuclear arsenal to back it. In that sense, I see progress. 

Vox @voxdotcom

Russian leader implies Putin is more masculine than Obama. His proof: their pets. bit.ly/1rNJbVt

And while Zelensky has captured the hearts of people all over the world, the global homoerotic male code of days gone by is still going strong. There’s still a contingency of male leaders desperate to prove their membership in the virility club. Insecure masculinity poster child Donald Trump did call the Russian war criminal a “genius.” And back in 2020, Putin himself praised his South American soulmate, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, saluting his performance of manhood saying that he had been very “masculine” in his dealing with the coronavirus. “You were even personally infected by this disease and withstood the ordeal with great courage. I know that moment must not have been easy, but you faced it like a real man and showed the best masculine qualities, such as strength and willpower”, Putin said non-ironically.

 This despite the fact that Bolsonaro’s response to the Covid crisis was so bad that today he stands accused of crimes against humanity. 

This kind of masculinized nationalism was also President Trump’s strategy here in the US. By reinforcing sex differences, obeying a code of idealized masculinity and throwing in his own personal touch tinge of homophobia, he sought to prove himself, like Putin, to be a “real man.” Sadly for many Americans, it worked. The data shows that Trump was more likely to win races in areas where men were more worried about their manhood. 

Enough is enough. We already know that nobody wins in war. But what needs to get into the heads of a new generation of voters is that nobody wins when masculine insecurity turns human lives into gambling chips. In the coming weeks, months and years much will be said about what could have been done to prevent this awful conflict. I for one will go to my grave arguing that better male attitudes towards strength, power, and leadership could have saved lives.