No Nut November: The annual challenge where WashU students decide to take a break from Larkin Love for a month, and, perhaps, Senator Josh Hawley gets bored of destroying our democracy by participating in No Nut November himself?

Over the summer, Hawley, the manly man of US Senate and 100m sprint specialist announced that he was releasing a new book in May 2023. Titled “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs,” the book will be an extension of a keynote address that he gave at the National Conservatism Conference (NCC) last year. In this address, the Missouri Senator devoted much of the speech to what he called “the Left’s attempt to give us a world beyond men.” He states: “The Left wants to define traditional masculinity as toxic. They want to define the traditional masculine virtues — things like courage, and independence, and assertiveness — as a danger to society.”

In an interview with Axios a week after his NCC speech, Hawley went on to add that he actually wanted to make masculinity a signature of his political campaign, and that he blames pornography and video games for the apparent decline of manhood. It’s a move that isn’t all too surprising, considering many dub him as a Republican 2024 presidential hopeful. “Can we be surprised,” Hawley argued, “that after years of being told that they are the problem, that their manhood is the problem, more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games?”

But it is not just Hawley; for years now, conservatives like him have long blamed video games and porn as the reason why men are marrying less, raising fewer kids, and working less. This obsession with masculinity is a phenomenon that has dominated their sphere as part of the ever-changing conversation regarding gender and sexuality throughout the country. But it is also a phenomenon that is closely aligned with far-right, white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys, who have enforced stringent rules on porn-viewing and masturbation among their members.

The annual challenge of No Nut November, commonly referred to as #NNN, has long dominated college campuses. At its core, #NNN challenges individuals to limit themselves from any sort of sexual activity that results in them ejaculating for the whole entire month of November. But despite the movement’s popularity among young men, it’s a toxic and dangerous one. Because at its core, the movement is embedded in racism, misogyny, and anti-semitism. For many members of the Proud Boys group, anti-porn and anti-masturbation movements like #NNN are a path to happiness, a way for one to improve their sex life, and in connection to Hawley, get closer to traditional family values. But, as with anything associated with far-right groups and their agenda, these sentiments that fuel #NNN have produced some grossly misogynistic, racist and antisemitic remarks. Remarks such as former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s statement that Jews are weaponizing the porn industry as means of revenge against “the Western World” for the injustices done against them “from the time of Romans to the modern day.” 

But let’s give Hawley the benefit of the doubt in believing that manhood is in danger. Because to some extent, he is right. 

In recent years, a high number of men have indeed been disconnected from their relationships to their families, their significant others and their communities. And this disconnection is not one without its negatives. The percentage of men participating in the labor force has decreased from 80% in the 1970s to 68% in 2021 as men are struggling to adjust to cultural and economic changes in the 21st century. Economically speaking, numbers like these aren’t a laughing matter. 

A Wall Street Journal article used by Hawley himself in his NCC keynote speech goes beyond just the workforce. Titled “A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost,’” the article dives into the decline of male college enrollment, where in recent years, women make up 60% of college students, while men only make up 40%. This is further contextualized by the fact that compared to five years ago, American colleges and universities have seen a decrease in enrollment of 1.5 million students — and men make up 71% of that number. 

And it is not just in the labor force or college campuses. It is also, as previously stated, in relationships. In her book titled “Rethinking Sex,” Washington Post columnist Christine Emba recalls hearing stories from both men and women in relationships about the negative influences pornography is having in their relationship. 

So again, despite his crazy rhetoric, Senator Hawley is actually touching on an important subject in America, and one that needs the attention of the public. But manly man of the Senate: you are pointing out a problem, but where is your solution to fix it? You are absolutely right — men’s interest in the labor force is decreasing, and that has a negative impact on our economy. Fewer men are enrolling in college, and once enrolled, fewer are graduating. A large swath of men cannot seem to recover or find themselves. You talk big game, Senator Hawley, but can you back it up?

Did you back it up by supporting President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, which intended to increase the Pell grant to low-income, first-generation male students who wish to take the next step in their life chapter by getting a college degree? Beyond that, do you support making community college completely free so these same men you claim to be trying to save don’t go bankrupt or bury themselves in huge piles of loans? 

Did you back it up, Senator, by supporting President Biden’s Build Back Better bill, a bill that also aimed to provide millions of American mothers and fathers with parental leave?

Did you, Senator Hawley?

Of course not. Because the issue at hand here is not about saving men and promoting traditional family values. The issue at hand here for Senator Hawley, and many other nationalists like himself, is about protecting the purity of the white race and promoting the misogynistic view that, inherently, men were created to be more assertive, and women more submissive. 

They are concerned with the uncomfortable truth that nowadays, interracial marriages are now common and are celebrated everywhere. Because as Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a gender studies professor at Calvin University says, Hawley knows what he’s doing. When he brings up his rhetoric about “shared culture” or “traditional values,” he knows he’s speaking to conservatives — both middle and far-right bases — that are concerned about protecting the purity of the white race, such as the Proud Boys or David Duke himself. They know what this country was like, know what it “ought” to be. 

So, Mr. Hawley, you are right: there’s a crisis among men. But if you aren’t willing to do the bare minimum — supporting actual policies that will address the problem you are pointing to — stop talking. Although more work is needed in achieving the envisioned more perfect union, we don’t need any more setbacks that aim to bring us backward. We don’t need any more setbacks that seek to dehumanize our Jewish neighbors and friends. We don’t need any more setbacks that seek to deny the existence of women beyond their perceived worth as a sexual object.

What we need, Senator Hawley, are policies that seek to address your concerns (that is, the ones we actually face). The solution to our problems are policies that will assure us that after four years here at a university, people are guaranteed a job and that for those who are using student loans to pay for college, their debt burden can be eased. The solution to our problems are policies that will give people the economic means to start a family (for those of us who wish to) in later years, and that in the future, people won’t live on an inhabitable planet at the mercy of climate change. And since you won’t support these policies, Senator Hawley, in the most respectful way that I can say this: shut the hell up.