The date is Oct. 6, and Kamala Harris is seated for another media appearance. She is in quasi-natural form: reserved yet assertive at will, professional but with ample room for humor and meme-worthy verve. Yet she is seemingly out of place. She sits in a room fit for the conflicted twenty-something woman adorned with Urban Outfitters furnishings. She wears a sweatshirt zip-up and somewhat slouchy pants, a far cry from her cashmere or silk blouses — but probably also designed by Chloé or Dior, which she favors over more accessible names. The Vice President is at none other than the Call Her Daddy studio, sitting across from Alex Cooper, the founder and host of the podcast that is the fifth most popular among women and has, since 2018, enthralled impressionable young ladies across the nation.
On this occasion, Harris maintains her stances, particularly those surrounding Roe v. Wade and women’s health — topical, impactful issues for the affectionately named “Daddy Gang.” She, as evidenced by appearances at events aimed at Black and Hispanic voters, is a shapeshifter: Harris is no stranger to the sporadic “blaccent” controversy, and tends to tune her drawl depending on her audience. And she morphs once again in this installment of the campaign.
Harris delivers hard-hitting topics in a manner more palatable to the millions of Gen Z women who tune in each week. Colloquial vernacular and a girlish vibe compose the episode in a fashion only the kids would clock. Cooper appeals to the Daddy Gang and Harris follows suit. Political jargon is interpolated into the dialogue when Cooper inquires about Donald Trump’s V.P. candidate, J.D. Vance, to which Harris contends “This guy is full of lies.” She is both authoritative and presidential; a refined embodiment of what we would deem an “it-girl.”
Whilst Harris HQ has seen considerable leaps in their media coverage whether by way of Charli xcx’s pithy endorsement on X or pseudo philosophical takes on her 2023 coconut speech, her appearance at the show is proof that the contemporary Presidential campaign still appeals to the battle of the sexes in often dire attempts to sway voters. The political environment is more a playground than ever before.
This is not a contained phenomenon: former President Donald Trump’s campaign has stuck by the boys’ side of the schoolyard (or “sigma males”) since his first campaign, garnering significantly higher favor among the demographic according to early polling. His recent sit-downs with straight male archetypes Adin Ross and Logan Paul are the complement to Harris’s; the interviews are vapid but enthralling — that is, if you’re a nineteen-year-old boy — and fine-tuned for the largely male audience with emphasis on Cybertrucks, Rolexes and of course, beer.
Both events serve as an extension of identity politics, and insufferable as they may be, are critical in securing the votes of a candidate's respective gender. After all, gendered appeal is one of the key components of any given campaign. Some studies have even found that male politicians suffer in voter turnout when they are not deemed “manly enough” by their supporters.
But from the perspective of the average voter, these empty mechanisms convey detachment. Attempts to bridge the gap between constituents and White House hopefuls are eroded by such hollow endeavors. Does anyone really believe the sixty-year-old Harris is equipped to speak on “female locker-room talk,” as Cooper coined the show? Did Trump know Ross’ show hosted white supremacist Nick Fuentes just four years prior?
The profusion of utter nonsense on both sides of the spectrum have delivered nothing but confusion. Just on Sunday afternoon, Trump traded in his blazer for the humble McDonald’s apron. He seasoned fries, worked the drive-thru and spouted nonsensical conspiracies regarding Harris’s college job as a patty flipper. Albeit not motivated by gender, the organized sham derided his opponent’s hardships as a young woman climbing the political ladder.
The result of these sad media appearances is an increasingly divided youth. The chasm between male and female political affiliations has since grown wider than ever before. Polling from Harvard’s Kennedy School reveals a 20 percent drop in men’s identification with progressivism, with verbal responses suggesting distaste for Democrats’ staunch positions on liberationist ideology (e.g. decolonization and new-wave gender theory).
One cannot help but attribute such rifts to the obnoxious political theater, or in my words, playground quarrels. With each Mar-a-Lago PR event and memeified TikTok from Kamala HQ, campaigns gain a fleeting wave of support. Yet they undermine each candidate’s reputation, painting them as immature and anything other than hip. They are adult parodies of children who, when faced with conflict, turn to peers of their same sex to briefly dampen the other’s argument.
Might Harris’s presence among the gals have been equally as convincing as Trump’s boyish pandering? Certainly. But the electorate, especially my easily impressionable peers, should question how they interpret these persuasions, and understand that just because “Kamala IS brat” or “Trump is for the boys” does not validate a choice in the voting booth.
Just because the integrity of our executive institutions is fading does not mean we should stoop to their juvenile behavior. And we may not turn out in November to the extent our elders might, but we can do our best to condition ourselves to be candid, reasonable political agents and not pick fights over menial matters. So consider the context — and not solely the viral one.
Francis Jaso is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at fxj4@cornell.edu.
Contrarian’s Calamity vouches for the unfavored controversies. It runs every other week.
Francis Xavier Jaso '28 is an Opinion Columnist and a Government and Economics student in the College of Arts & Sciences. His fortnightly column “A Contrarian’s Calamity” defies normative, dysfunctional campus discourse in the name of reason, hedonism, and most notably, satire. He can be reached at fjaso@cornellsun.com.
