Legitimate agitation about the orientation of young men and boys came to a head in the hours after Donald Trump’s re-election. Russian state television’s 60 Minutes program, in an episode ostensibly to commemorate Trump’s victory, chose to mark it with nude photos of a woman. Melania Trump while looking for a GQ photoshoot in 2000 and for a 1995 French men’s magazine.

The male host’s report about the Trumps’ impending return to the White House doesn’t even seem like anything more than a lame excuse to use suggestive photos of a woman taken decades ago. “The cover of this magazine GQ,” she says next to the grinning female presenter, describing the “future First Lady” as she lies on furs… on a blue carpet bearing the US seal, as if the editors of the men’s magazine knew something about this event in advance. The future of their models. Producers, zoom and To what end?

Clip shared by journalist Julia DavisThe photos, which have been rummaged around the internet for years and are easily found, appear to be original, said the creator of Russian Media Monitor and Daily Beast columnist. Even if the clip is proven to be fake, someone went to the trouble of using a well-known woman’s body to achieve nefarious ends. But despite the Kremlin’s timing, this crude display just poor coverage in the USA.

In the middle of the campaign last September, Melania Trump used a promotional video for her new memoir in an attempt to head off the recurring question of nude photos. “Why do I proudly stand behind my nude modeling work? The more pressing question is why the media chose to scrutinize my celebration of the human form in a fashion photo shoot. Can we no longer appreciate the beauty of the human body?” he asks, scrolling through famous paintings of the human form by “master artists.”

But context is everything, and like the modern old masters, his quirky idea of ​​lads’ magazines doesn’t work here. R-1’s 60 Minutes is not a refined arts program. It is the flagship talk show on Russian state television, airing twice a day with studio discussions that support the Kremlin line on all issues in a country where the government has shut down independent Russian news sources and ensured that television, the primary tool for shaping public opinion, is on message. .

Perhaps the more pressing question for Melania and all women is the reason behind the proliferation of these images just hours after Trump’s re-election.

The show aired after Trump, who was reportedly also joined by Elon Musk. It was reported that he met with Putin on Thursday and reportedly warned him not to “tensify” Ukraine. The Kremlin denies the conversation took place, but some theories suggest the photos were a response to Putin.

Whatever the truth, the use of women’s bodies as political weapons is nothing new. Rape has been a weapon of war since the war. Donald Trump’s misogyny is also reflected in his objection. That’s what this US election was about.

Like Trump, Putin has used misogynistic attacks and rhetoric for decades to demean and belittle his enemies and bolster his supporters. Putin may also be using them as a coded reminder of more harmful komproms aimed at the target. Sharing Melania’s old photos on the show was a clear understatement; a woman’s body revealed the power dynamic of the US-Russia relationship.

In the warped manosphere that both Trump and Putin inhabit, there’s also the possibility that the release of the photos might be an act of homage, a mutually condescending endorsement of both men’s “manhood.” It would be logical to conclude that Donald Trump is secretly pleased with Putin’s art exhibition.

This is their leitmotif and the fanboys are all in on it. 26-year-old white nationalist influencer and Hitler fan Nick Fuentes – who had dinner with Trump two years ago – Shared with joy after Trump’s re-election, “Your body. “My choice.” This sentence, which sends shivers down the spines of women, has been viewed 35 million times and is now heard regularly in American schools and campuses.

Andrew Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist and idol of many schoolchildren who is currently under house arrest in Romania over allegations of human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, is glad to be “back in America.” “Today I saw a woman crossing the road but I kept my foot on the ground. Right of way? You no longer have rights,” he wrote, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).

ISD found a nearly 5,000 percent increase in the use of “Your Body.” My Choice” and in recent weeks phrases like “get back to the kitchen” and “abolish the 19th (women’s suffrage)” have been used. 50 percent of voters who voted for Trump knew this would happen. The problem isn’t social media bubbles; All the hatemongers, including Trump himself, are on right-wing channels.

And so, those dirty, mindless, destructive boys’ games, mine bigger than yours, will grow and wave on the backs of women’s bodies. Dead or alive. And women are to blame for that. This is the internet soup on which boys and young men are raised.