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Charles M. Blow

By Charles M. Blow

Opinion Columnist

Near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, the world learned about the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Donald Trump bragged about groping women.

Days later, he apologized for those comments but dismissed them as “locker room talk.”

Not today: Instead of defensively downplaying his vulgarity, he has leaned into it. Instead of worrying that his loutish behavior might alienate women, he’s embracing it.

He’s not trying to close the gender gap among voters, particularly younger voters; he wants to exploit it. Locker room politics are the basis of his closing argument.

For months, Trump has been engaged in a foulmouthed assault on Vice President Kamala Harris, reposting lewd comments about her on social media, reportedly referring to her with an expletive behind closed doors and demeaning her as “stupid.”

Last week at a rally, he said, “We can’t stand you, you’re a shit vice president,” shortly after sharing an admiring anecdote about the size of the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s penis.

We’ve heard this kind of talk from Trump before. In 2016, responding to a dig from Marco Rubio, he said, “He referred to my hands: ‘If they’re small, something else must be small.’ I guarantee you there’s no problem.”

This all speaks to a toxic masculinity in which the definition of what it means to be a man is reduced to the size of a sex organ. There’s an almost........

© The New York Times