Opinion | What the Donald Trump-Nancy Pelosi dynamic reveals about men and their confusion amid changing gender roles
- Bertie Wai says men today seem bewildered as they navigate relationships with empowered women who expect them to be emotionally savvy rather than to conform to traditional masculine stereotypes
For many, the exquisitely nuanced image of Pelosi clapping with her arms outstretched encapsulates the power dynamic between the two in ways that words could not.
Amid the plethora of commentary on the relationship between the two, an article in The New York Times strikes me as particularly relevant in the wider context of modern gender dynamics.
Barbara Res, a former executive vice-president of the Trump Organisation, says: “Dealing with anyone with power equal to his is a first for him – at least in his mind. He has the perception that he is the most powerful person in the world, and then he comes up against somebody who thinks they have as much power as he or as much control as he, and that’s a shock to him. And it’s complicated by the fact that she is a woman.”
Michael D’Antonio, the author of The Truth About Trump, explains: “I think that he’s caught between his respect for Pelosi and his anger at her resistance.