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Closet homosexuality, perhaps? — Inside #MAGA’s creepy obsession with testosterone as a marker of national strength. {The Telegraph 18 July}https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/4c55efbff4de55b1
Truth be told, I may be one of those ‘low T’ men: I am pale, anaemic, underweight, a lifelong smoker and drinker, and I hate exercising anything other than my mind. The only reason to believe otherwise is that I have a very manly voice: I have been told at certain times that I should be in radio, and did consider attending broadcast school when I was considering my college options. Perhaps I should have pursued it, but even thirty years ago it was clear that radio was no longer a growth industry (the Telecommunications Act of that very year, 1996, ruined it). More pertinently, I also lacked greatly in confidence, as a childhood of constantly being made to feel inferior to peers will do that to a human being. I have never been athletic, cut out for military service, and cannot fight my way out of a wet paper bag. Nor hath any of this ever bothered me very much, apart from the lack of confidence in myself and much regret over lacking a backbone to stand up to more than a few motherf**kers who should have been put in their place.
Perhaps my nature hath bothered some other folks I have been unfortunate enough to know over the course of this thankless life, but they may kindly kiss my Anglo-Saxon ass. What the hell do I care about ‘measuring up’ physically to other men, when most other men are complete and total f**king bores and are nothing to emulate? I have never cared what other men look like, do not like most of them on any level, and it is so nonsensical and a bit peculiar to my, admittedly unorthodox, brain that anybody would. Beyond basic biology, I often wonder why women are attracted to us. On the whole, we are ugly creatures, inside and out.
Frankly, I have a hard time imagining how all these men can be so obsessed with their manhood, and the vitality of other men, and there not be some pent-up sexual frustration at play. How can so many men be endlessly preoccupied with other men's bodies and sex lives, yet insist this is simply normal masculine, heterosexual behaviour? I do not even know if I can explain in a paragraph or two, but it is just so bloody gross to me. Bodybuilding in particular… yuck. These fellows spend half their lives admiring themselves in mirrors and spending the other half evaluating other men's physiques, and we are supposed to think this is the epitome of manhood? People are too caught up in other people’s affairs to begin with, but having to engage in virtual dick-measuring contests all the time is not something I am interested in, particularly not at forty-eight.
Like most of these moral panics the extremes of American politics cook up, there is a basis of truth. Falling testosterone levels are a scientifically proven phenomenon, and may well contribute to why many men — to my ears, at least — my age and under have high, effeminate voices now. Have we noticed that not many men have distinctive voices anymore? I notice it most when watching baseball games: nearly all the younger play-by-play announcers have these flat, indistinct voices and there is not a new Jack Buck or Harry Kalas coming along. But I digress. Ultimately, it is simply a question of how grave a 'crisis' we believe this to be. My opinion is that there will always emerge ‘alpha’ males in society, for better and for worse. Basic human nature does not change, and boys are going to be boys, men are going to be men, and most — regardless of their ‘T’ levels — shall be forever insecure in their manhood.
And there will always be grifters such as Trump, Andrew Tate, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Dana White, Pete Hegseth, and the rest of these ‘manosphere’ figures ready to take advantage of the weak, insecure, and pathetic.
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Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.
