As I watched Kamala Harris concede defeat while promising to continue “the fight that fueled this campaign,” the image that came to my mind was the famous statue of the little girl staring down the charging bull on Wall Street. For her supporters, Harris was supposed to be something like that little girl, all grown up and come to life: a poised, progressive bullfighter, standing firm against the volatile, aggrieved masculinity embodied in Donald Trump. In a bullfight, it is generally the matador that holds the power, and it is a rare bull that escapes his fate. And yet here he is, charging the White House.
The “fearless girl” might be taken as a symbol of the feminized model of the ideal political subject that has emerged in recent decades. Harris’s election would have marked this subject’s coronation and America’s acceptance of a quiet but profound transformation of what citizens are supposed to be. Trump’s victory suggests that a critical mass of the electorate refuses to be tamed. Inevitably, that refusal is stigmatized as typically masculine. “White men without college degrees are going to ruin this country,” claims a viral X post from a self-described Democratic strategist responding to Trump’s victory.