Men are defending Brett Kavanaugh because they're afraid

This argument smells of fear. If expressions of male violence that were once justified as “boys will be boys” are no longer permissible, it will mark a major cultural shift, one which many men are not prepared for…

Male emotions are running amok because the stakes are higher than ever before. They are scared they won’t be able to get away with it anymore, and they are going out of their way to stand by Kavanaugh not only to spite their ideological opponents, or because of their internalized misogyny, but to uphold the status quo. Perhaps the women defending him are afraid of change too, but I think they have different motivations that are tangential to this—Weiss is asking a question about the meaning of the conversation we’re having about Kavanaugh, while his male champions are dramatically responding to his reports of his unsavory yearbook scribbles with stuff like, “So he should spend the rest of his life in jail?”