epigone
ep·i·gone
/ˈepəˌɡōn/
noun
plural noun: epigones
a less distinguished follower or imitator of someone, especially an artist or philosopher.
"the epigone's habit of exaggerating his master's voice"
On one side, there’s the enlightened maleness embodied by Harris’s vice-presidential pick and her husband, Doug Emhoff. These are the good progressive dads, Rebecca Traister of New York magazine writes, the “nice men of the left” who do guy things like coach football but also manifest liberal and feminist virtues — like being “happily deferential” and “unapologetically supportive of women’s rights” and “committed to partnership” in marriage and politics alike. Walz especially is being held up all over as a paragon of liberal dadhood: “A regular guy,” Mona Charen of The Bulwark writes, “at a time when the country needs reminding that being a regular guy is actually pretty great.”
Then there is the other model, the dark side of the Y chromosome: the toxic masculinity of Donald Trump, the anti-cat-lady conservatism of JD Vance, all of them wrapped together in a package that Zack Beauchamp of Vox describes as “neo-patriarchy.” This is a worldview, he writes, that may claim to allow for more female agency than the older patriarchy but really just wants a “reversal of the feminist revolution,” in which men finally get to be he-men again while their wives stay home and rear four to seven kids.
Most caricatures fasten on some aspect of reality, and the American right in the Trump era does indeed encompass frankly sexist ideas and influences — from Andrew Tate epigones looking for permission to be playboys to would-be patriarchs resentful that the women of America won’t cooperate.
| Ross Douthout is wrong as ever, but his word choice is good.
Wonderful, timely word. I wonder whether healthy communities have a capped epigonal content that balances support with challenge. Or the opposite; in organisations- epigonal overload and wilful ignorance? Thank you :-)