Pete Buttigieg Says Tucker Carlson Has ‘Fears About Masculinity’

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday accused Tucker Carlson and others of politicizing “masculinity” because they fear “modernity.” 

In a Thursday interview with Wired, Buttigieg discussed Republican-led boycotts against companies like Bud Light, climate change, and much more. During talk of Bud Light protests over the beer maker’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, Buttigieg was asked about the former Fox host.

“Have you followed the masculinity crusade of former TV personality Tucker Carlson — testicle warming and the rest?” reporter Virginia Heffernan asked. 

“I mean, where to begin on this? Fears about masculinity are a way into the fear of displacement. Masculinity establishes a default place, and that place is being shifted and threatened by modernity,” Buttigieg said. “A man as the head of the household. The only one who earns income. The default leader in any social or political organization.”

“Testicle warming” is a reference to a Fox Nation special from Carlson called End of Men, in which “testicle tanning” was highlighted. 

Conservatives like Carlson are behind the “politicization of masculinity,” Buttigieg added.

“The politicization of masculinity is code for: Nothing in your life has to change. The problem is, of course, lots of things have to change. Either because there was something wrong with the old way — or because, even as the old way seemed perfectly fine, it’s not an option,” he said.