We present the film, The Man Card. For years, right-wing politicians and pundits have accused the left of playing “the race card” and “the woman card” and engaging in identity politics. This eye-opening documentary turns the tables and takes dead aim at the right’s own longstanding use of white male identity politics in American presidential elections. Ranging from Richard Nixon’s tough-talking, fear-stoking law-and-order campaign in 1968 to Donald Trump’s hyper-macho revival of these same tactics in 2020, The Man Card shows how the right has employed a deliberate strategy to frame Democrats and liberals as soft, brand the Republican Party as the party of “real men,” and position conservatives as defenders of white male power and authority in the face of seismic demographic changes and ongoing struggles for equality. The Man Card pays special attention to how the right has used white-male identity politics to channel the legitimate, class-based grievances of millions of white men into unbridled resentment of people of color, immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community, and so-called “liberal elites.” And it shows how this siege mentality has undercut the presidential prospects of women and undermined the nation’s ability to adapt to a changing world. A co-production of the Media Education Foundation and Eat the Moon Films, The Man Card was directed by acclaimed filmmakers Peter Hutchison and Lucas Sabean, and was created and co-written by political analyst Jackson Katz, the author of the award-winning book Man Enough: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton & the Politics of Presidential Masculinity.
