One characterization of modern American society is that we have reached heights of both stereotypical feminism and wild androgyny. And Democrats, the authors, have created the paradox for themselves.

Not that androgyny is not an obvious result of radical feminism — it is, of course — but that, alongside this phenomenon, they have achieved a terrible height of hyperfemininity. Which case might seem to have been the goal of the movement, though it looks like the Democratic Party is stuck in an annoying mold.

The previous election epitomized that in its outcome, but the situation may be even more pronounced post-election. By way of recapitulation: Democrats exacerbated their approach to women as they advanced their candidates. Abortion was a constant and overdone issue, with pro-abortion protesters at the Democratic National Convention as pink and sexualized as possible. Also at the DNC were vasectomy trucks and the claim that only Democrats “trust women.” 

And while the gender gap was not much of a determinant in President Donald Trump’s victory, it still exists. Now, it is evident instead in the Democratic Party’s normal operations: its spokespeople and what it stands for, in things such as Senate confirmation hearings and legislative debates. Post-election, the “gap” is more just a “stark difference” — one between the two parties, but also between what Democrats aim to project and what they actually do.

At Senate confirmation hearings, especially, we saw the ire of Democratic women: It came out in how they yelled at nominees. Take Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), for example, across from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. No matter the achievements her supporters admire — professorships in male-dominated settings, a divorce, two Senate terms — she still evokes the unpleasant traits attached to women, particularly liberal women. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), one of the senators further to the left, did the same to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. 

These women — some of the best at rejecting traditional beliefs — confirm how Democratic women embody the age-old stereotype of irrational and over-emotional women, rather than bucking it.

At the same time, we see rampant androgyny. Not the fully transgender people — those men fit into the group, but they reach for strong female stereotypes to express themselves — but the ones who play up just how “undecided” they are. These women reject the new, do-it-all “ideal” for women laid out by radical feminist predecessors. The camp of leftist women now consists of crazily feminine women and women who are radically liberated from the call of womanhood, while neither attains authentic femininity.

I doubt this was their goal. It is impressive, in a way, that Democratic coalitions have been able to reconcile these two types so seamlessly. Part of it, though, is the natural result of an exclusively feminine ethos: The Democratic Party runs on a sort of distorted compassion, one that is protective and single-minded to a fault. 

But, the denial of this problem is deliberate. It would be quite easy: See the value in men and try to appeal to them. The rest might balance out on its own. Again and again, however, Democrats refuse men from their platform of issues. We know that the party is not attractive to men, and they sure do not care to primp their appearance. CNN anchor Dana Bash has said as much of the Democratic Party’s aversion to testosterone.

So, complaints that Trump is unserious fall flat. Democrats latched on to this idea when Trump campaigned with Hulk Hogan instead of Planned Parenthood and gay rights pinups. They argued that Trump was aiming for the superficial, that he had to platform. On the contrary, Trump and his Republican allies were able to see that they did not need to take such choices so seriously: Appeals to gender are pretty simple, because traditional norms are defended naturally. Hulk Hogan has no burden of proof on his gender, but abortion revolutionaries certainly do.

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The Democratic ploy to campaign on “joy” likewise fell flat, at least for men. If a young man these days is joyful, he is probably either already religious or conservative, and would have voted Trump, or he is miserable economically, and would have voted Trump.

And now it remains for Democrats to criticize Trump administration foci as unserious. They have already begun doing so by brushing off the executive order “keeping men out of women’s sports” and by declining to vote for the Laken Riley Act. These are real issues that need to be addressed but not overdone. Just as with the need to pursue actual masculinity and femininity, Republicans can see as much and Democrats will not.