The New, Relaxed Model of Masculinity
As Americans consider the prospect of a female President, where does that leave men? The answer may depend on your politics
I’m a 10-year-old schoolgirl, absentmindedly flipping through the TV channels, when I discover Kisses for My President, a comedy about the election of America’s first female commander-in-chief.
The movie focuses not on the President herself but on her husband — a man humiliated by his new “second-fiddle” status. He broods around the White House, enduring dull afternoon teas and charity luncheons. Worse yet, the poor guy can’t even make love to his wife, thanks to Cabinet members making ill-timed emergency calls.
Near the movie’s end, the President leaves a tense meeting and collapses into a dead faint. A few days later, at a press conference, she tells reporters she’s “in a condition” (apparently there was an opportunity for some Presidential hoochie-coochie). Moreover, she announces, she’s retiring to devote herself full-time to her family.
The movie’s closing sequence shows the loving couple walking arm in arm. The husband turns to his now-retired wife to boast: “Well, honey, it took 40 million women to put you into office, but only one to take you out.”
