Call it gender choreography.
Donald J. Trump prowled the stage last night, frowning, pacing, looming over Hillary Clinton. When he wasn’t walking, he gripped the back of his chair, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.
She, meanwhile, placed herself right in front of him, moving close to her questioners, trying to lock gazes with them and project empathy. She was largely stone-faced when he spoke, except when she allowed a few smiles of undisguised disdain.
They jabbed at each other, in their very different ways.
He threatened her and hurled accusations, his words matching his posture. Did he get caught on a video boasting about how he forced himself on women because a star can do whatever he wants? No, her husband is worse, and Mr. Trump paraded the women to prove it.
He’s accused of stirring up hatred with his attacks on Muslims, Mexicans, a reporter with a disability, an American war hero’s family? No, Hillary Clinton is full of hate. When he’s president, he’ll put her in jail. She stayed largely calm as he resurrected the humiliation of so many years ago, like a mother holding on to her temper when a child acts out. But she also tried to needle him with her attacks on his fitness, and succeeded in prompting a torrent of interruptions.
Each of their gender strategies carried risks. Mrs. Clinton had to look above it all, a woman fit to be commander in chief and a woman who had risen above her husband’s betrayal. Yet in her containment, she often passed up opportunities to land blows.
He risked looking like a bully, physically towering above her, cutting her off and reminding voters of the contempt he has so often displayed to other women.
But he had prepared better this time and was armed with far more facts in addition to bluster.
What a spectacle this election has been, in which ideas about gender have been resuscitated, reinforced and rebutted. We have a man whose affairs played out in public attacking a woman who stayed married to a man whose affairs were public.
We have a woman simultaneously trying to project warmth and power. Men are supposed to be rational and women emotional, but in most of this campaign those roles have been reversed. We have a man who prides himself on his conquest of women who needs to win women’s votes in key swing states.
The music is speeding up, and it’s getting harder to keep up with this dance.
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