Pete Buttigieg’s steady evolution from a forward-thinking young lawmaker — albeit one touting a military background and Christian values — to a politician perhaps overly eager to reach across the aisle continues.
In an interview published in GQ this week, as part of a series entitled “State of the American Male in 2025,” the former secretary of Transportation spoke about what he thinks it means to be a man today and what the path forward for American men should be. In the discussion — which highlighted the fact that he was making conservative media appearances well before Democratic politicians were courting Joe Rogan as well as his enthusiasm for moderation — Buttigieg focused on younger sections of the population whom he believes feel deeply alienated in the current political climate.
“There’s clearly been a turning just in the last few years — and it was brought out in the election, but it’s not just about the election — where I think you have a lot of younger men who viewed the things that have changed as going so far that they no longer see where they would fit in a more progressive story,” Buttigieg told GQ.
“To me, that’s a tragedy because I think in many ways young men have a lot to lose, maybe the most to lose from some of the mistakes that are happening right now in our politics and in our government,” he added.
The gay former Indiana mayor, who ran for president in 2020, explained that the reason he personally feels the need to reach out to younger men is that the left has increasingly adopted a culture of “scolding and finger-wagging” that’s contributed to their alienation. After citing Andrew Schulz, a comedian and podcaster known for his anti-woke rhetoric, Buttigieg went on to say that efforts to address gender-based discrimination — and, presumably, the #MeToo era — have had negative consequences for men that should be addressed.
“I think some very real and very worthy work that was happening around gender — especially making sure that more attention was paid to sexism in the workplace and things like sexual harassment and sexual assaults — brought with it a side effect,” he said. “I think for a lot of people, they would only expect the left to use the word ‘masculinity‘ after the word ‘toxic.’ And so the bottom fell out of any kind of alternative account of what masculinity is or ought to be, which of course is something I think my side very much has a responsibility to put forward, instead of just always seeming to be against them.”
Buttigieg and GQ‘s Jack Crosbie also discussed whether there’s a middle ground between the prescriptive view of masculinity that the right is currently espousing — think, masculinity boot camps — and a view that demonizes hobbies like watching UFC and going to the gym. And ever the politician, Buttigieg said “nobody wants to feel like they’ve got to look over their shoulder all the time” in regards to the urge to police the presentation of manhood.
Taking a similarly diplomatic stance on topics like what it means to be a man, he named qualities like strength, honesty, decency, and the ability to lead, delving into parenting his boy-girl twins and how gender plays a factor. And he spoke about how society should be teaching men to be rooted in faith, family, and community, and focusing on socializing youth rather than subjecting them to censorship or judgment about their core beliefs.
Respectability politics
While Buttigieg’s approach to the young American men of today — and how society should be governed in general — has its fans, it’s also something that’s invited criticism in the past few months, as the former Transportation secretary has seemed to increasingly move away from liberalism and toward moderate politics at all costs.
Many of the critiques point to the fact that, in the name of respectability politics, Buttigieg has legitimized dangerous ideologies like transphobia and the types of views about LGBTQ+ people, women, and minorities that are espoused by conservative commentators and the “manosphere.” And as a result, some commentators have called into question his fitness as a party leader going forward, particularly in light of the fact that he’s being seen as a possible contender for a 2028 presidential run.
On that latter point, Buttigieg hasn’t exactly helped himself, often qualifying his statements with allusions to the Democratic Party’s failings at a time when many people are looking for firmer opposition to the Trump administration and a strong stance on ideological issues. But the former lawmaker doesn’t seem to be overly concerned with rocking the boat if it will turn the tide against young men who already feel unwelcome by his party of choice.
Toward the end of his interview with GQ, when asked about messaging through “backlash” to Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo Movement, Buttigieg struck what’s become a characteristically reassuring tone when addressing issues that might evoke discomfort for young male voters.
“If you are a good, strong, honest man, you have absolutely nothing to lose from living in a society where women have equal fair treatment at work and are protected from being abused. Obviously, nothing that should matter to you as a man is at risk because of that. I think where things have gone wrong is that, on both sides, it does start to get framed as zero-sum,” Buttigieg said, using marriage equality as an example of when progress is achieved in the right way, it’s clear that it’s “not at anybody’s expense.”
When prompted for further explanation on why his “side bears some of the blame” for some people feeling like change comes as a cost, Buttigieg said, “Because, again, if we can’t separate the word ‘masculinity’ from the word ‘toxic,’ or if we make it seem like anybody who’s got any discomfort around changes in society, gender roles, you name it, must be some kind of dinosaur or retrograde asshole — if that’s the message we’re putting out, then of course people are going to feel like it’s hostile to them versus feel like they’re being recruited into that new future.”
Elaina Patton is a New York-based writer and editor.
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This article originally appeared on Out: Pete Buttigieg wants to win back young American men—but at what cost?