Toxic masculinity in American politics: Donald Trump’s tweeting activity in the US presidential election (2016)

Abstract

In the US presidential election of 2016, Donald Trump’s connection with his voters marked the history of American politics by electing a political outsider to the White House. Under a feminist scope, this article examines Donald Trump’s Twitter account. The central purpose of this article is threefold: first, to scrutinize Trump’s tweeting activity and his dissemination of hegemonic toxic masculinity through this platform; second, to assess the unfavourable representation of Hillary Clinton’s decentred femininity and third, to examine how Trump’s performative toxic masculinity immediately connected with his voters’ cultural capital via Twitter. Finally, through an analysis of the impact of Trump’s tweets on his followers, the findings from this study will highlight that Clinton’s decentred gender performativity and Trump’s shared capital with his voters may well have been a fundamental tenet of Donald Trump’s victory.