Glenn Greenwald Outs Likely Weenie-Boy

The epidemic of conservative weenie-boys continues. This time Glenn Greenwald "outs" a weenie-boy, or to be more respecting a weenie "young man," named Mark Hemingway who's now writing for National Review Online.

Like a lot of weenie boys, Hemingway bristles with tough-guy comments about other men.

When Larry Craig got busted for his bathroom come-on, Hemingway wasn't surprised because Craig was in the United States Senate barbershop quartet.

The arrest of Idaho Senator Larry Craig is largely baffling — but not because it’s hard to believe that a member of “The Singing Senators” barbershop quartet might be gay despite a lifetime 96-percent American Conservative Union rating.

Trent Lott is the last member of "The Singing Senators" who is in the Senate (without announcing an "intent" to resign). Hemingway would probably recommend that Lott be tailed.

Today, Hemingway goes after David Souter:

Did Souter cry over 2000 recount vote? [Mark Hemingway] Of all the Supreme Court justices, I always suspected he was the sissy mary. Scalia probably waits outside his chamber to steal his lunch money.

So who is Mr. Tough-Guy Mark Hemingway? Here's a picture.

And that was after eating a bucket of nails.

And here's a picture of Mark Hemingway on his way out to break a couple of wild mustangs. Or was he going to land a record marlin instead?

But Greenwald's analysis of Hemingway is mistaken. Greenwald argues that figures like Mark Hemingway, Rush Limbaugh, George Bush, Sean Hannity, and Newt Gingrich are projecting an identification with "traditional masculinity" that they don't live up to in their own lives.

Virtually the entire top layer of Republican leaders, both political and media figures, are the very opposite of the virtues this movement claims to embody. From Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the rest of the right-wing noise machine, along with our brave neoconservative warmongers -- to say nothing of the likes of George Bush and Dick Cheney -- it is virtually impossible to locate genuine acts of strength, bravery, regular-guy wholesomeness, or any of the warrior attributes and virtues of traditional masculinity they claim to exude.

Greenwald treats them as hypocrites and liars and offers somewhat of a moral condemnation of the "fictional character" or hypocrisy of right-wing masculinity. Of course, Greenwald is correct in claiming that conservative figures do not embody the virtues of "traditional masculinity." But, Greenwald is mistaken to think that guys like Hemingway are hold traditional masculinity as a standard. What's Hemingway defines as "masculine"has nothing to do with the "regular-guy wholesomeness," dating prowess, Boy Scout accomplishments, or athleticism associated with conventional masculinity. He spills the beans when he fantasizes about Antonin Scalia stealing David Souter's lunch money. For Hemingway, it's bullying, thuggishness, and taking advantage of smaller and weaker people that defines masculinity instead. In general, the right-wing interprets masculinity in terms of movie, video game, and comic book images of exaggerated power, viciousness, and domination. These kinds of images are so exaggerated that it's farcical to think of anyone but the bizarre, fanatical, and obsessive actually trying to meet them. That's why right-wing images of masculinity have a "weenie" quality to them. When one thinks about it, they're just too exaggerated for most people to take seriously.

But right-wingers take their comic book masculinity seriously indeed. Contrary to Greenwald, right-wingers like Mark Hemingway are determined to substitute a farcical weenie-boy standard of masculinity for the traditional standards they can't meet. And it's important to emphasize that the right has been extremely successful in their campaign to legitimize "weenie-boy" masculinity against the more conventional masculinity of guys like Al Gore or John Kerry.

Indeed, even as sharp a critic as Glenn Greenwald can be fooled into taking the right-wing brand of masculinity as a version of traditional male virtue.