The Ford-Kavanaugh ‘Showdown’ Put Toxic Masculinity and Entitlement on Display

Brett Kavanaugh was visibly angry. He lashed out. He answered questions with disrespectful questions, spun conspiracy theories, and showed himself to be the bully that Christine Blasey Ford describes.

And yet, we can expect Brett Kavanaugh to win conformation to he U.S. Supreme Court — a lifetime appointment that will give him ample opportunity to press ahead with a virulent partisan agenda that is anti-worker, anti-woman, and deferential to executive power.

The Kavanaugh confirmation, though, is not about that agenda, not with a president like Donald Trump or a conservative Senate majority. The appointment of Neil Gorsuch demonstrated as much. This seat — formerly held by Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who occasionally sided with liberals to tilt the court in a less inhumane direction — will be filled by an arch conservative.

What the Kavanaugh confirmation shows, however, is that women’s voices do not matter. The #metoo movement has been effective in chasing some powerful men from their positions of power, but those instances have featured somewhat powerful women — actresses with a following — or men whom the power structure was comfortable dispatching. Men like Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, and Louie C.K. deserved their rebukes and ultimate exile, but the real decision-makers in our society, the cabal of privileged white men of wealth or connection, they get protection.