Assault Depicted as Acceptable

A culture of toxic masculinity on the right has driven them to support more aggressive and confrontational approaches to politics over decorum and respect. Along with this has been threats of violence and violent actions. This mentality spreads to everyday life as when it comes to handling conflict, conservatives -- especially the right wing -- more often threaten or engage in violence to resolve conflict. So having assaults depicted as acceptable on screen helps propagate this mentality as a way to resolve conflict and makes it seem ok to use in real life.

• All About Steve (2009) | Assault Played for Laughs
  Steve (Bradley Cooper) punches Hartman (Thomas Haden Church) in the face because he's goading Mary (Sandra Bullock) to continue pursuing a relationship with Steve even though he made it abundantly clear he wasn't interested in her.
• The Hangover (2009) | Assault with a Punch Depicted as Acceptable
  Mike Tyson knocks Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis) out with a punch in the face for stealing his tiger.
  Staff Aside
  The scene is really, really funny but still lends credence to the idea it's better to just hit someone instead of taking other action.
• I Love You Man (2009) | Assault Played for Laughs
  Peter (Paul Rudd) gets up from his desk, stares down Tevin, and slaps him in the face without saying a word after Tevin tries to poach one of his real estate clients.
• Tropic Thunder (2008) | Assault Played for Laughs
  A fuming studio boss Les Grossman (Tom Cruise), upset with the progress of the movie, directs the key grip, who is likely the strongest person in the room, to "hit that director in the face, really fu*king hard!" The key grip walks over to the director, says "sorry, man," and punches him in the face.
  Staff Aside
  Tom Cruise is hilariously over the top intense in this cameo. The scene is laugh out loud funny. Which makes the point. If you thought someone would get in trouble for this, you wouldn't laugh. But in the movies, punching someone in the face is almost always acceptable without consequences.
• Fool's Gold (2008) | Assault Played for Laughs
  Tess tells Finn of her plan to go back to college, get a PhD and teach. Finn says, "when are you going to stop selling this crap about going back to school" and further denigrates academia. Finn tells her their boat sunk which she was relying on to pay for her tuition after they divorced, and so she hits him with a golf club. Finn also gets punched later on by his rival treasure hunting former associate Moe.
  Staff Aside
  The movie is great fun. But nobody wants to watch academics do their thing on screen even though it is valuable, necessary and rewarding work. So of course, there will always be an inherent conservative bias against it as it's an easy foil for screenwriters. And when assault is played for laughs, even with a woman against a man, it perpetuates a conservative mindset. It's never ok for a man to just hit a woman on screen. Men hit men all the time and women hit women all the time on screen. But conservative men like to play the victim card against women and so when women are depicted as assaulting men, they use that as ammo.
  Additional Tropes: Anti-Intellectualism Depicted | Women Losing Control
• The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) | Assault Played for Laughs
  Cal (Seth Rogan) flicks and then punches David (Paul Rudd) "in the fleshy patch where [his] nuts used to be" because David is too shy to go talk to a woman Cal wants him to hit on.
• Bridget Joness Diary (2001) | Assault with a Punch Depicted as Acceptable
  Mark (Colin Firth) angrily tells Daniel (Hugh) to step outside of Bridget's (Renée Zellweger) apartment and when they both are outside Mark says "I should have done this year ago" and proceeds to punch him square in the face. Daniel asks him "what the f*ck do you think you're doing" and Mark responds "this" before punching him in the face again. Instead of trying to break up the fight, Bridget's friend runs into a restaurant and excitedly yells "fight! Well, quick! It's a real fight!" and four waiters and the manager run outside to watch and egg on two grown men fight in a scene that lasted an absurdly long two minutes and thirty-eight seconds.
  Additional Tropes: Assault Played for Laughs | Men Competing for the Same Woman
• Armageddon (1998)
  Harry (Bruce Willis) is so super over-protective of his daughter Grace that when he finds out she slept with his employee AJ (Ben Affleck) on an oil rig, he chases after him around the oil rig with a shotgun actually shooting at and almost hitting him.
  Other Tropes: Fathers Overprotective of Daughters
• Happy Gilmore (1996) | Assault Played for Laughs
  Happy throws off his hockey gloves and repeatedly punches his coach while screaming "you think you're better than me?!" after he doesn't make the amateur hockey team he tries out for.
• Happy Gilmore (1996)
  The IRS is seizing Happy Gilmore's grandmother's house because she owes $270k in back taxes. The IRS agent on site is not very sympathetic and eventually gets thrown out a glass door and down the stairs by Happy.
  Other Tropes: Assault Played for Laughs
• Happy Gilmore (1996) | Assault Played for Laughs
  A spectator heckles Happy Gilmore after he misses multiple easy putts and he responds by ripping off his shirt and punching him in the face. Happy has a background in hockey where fights are allowed and so it's funny because the spectator deserves it.
• Dazed and Confused (1993) | Assault Played for Laughs
  Hazing is normalized in multiple scenes throughout the movie, with soon-to-be seniors literally chasing down soon-to-be freshmen to paddle them.
  Staff Aside
  The movie, which was filmed in the early 90's but takes place in the 70's, is glorifying the "good ole' days" when boys could be boys and hazing was a rite of passage.
• Airplane! (1980) | Assault Played for Laughs
  A hysterical woman starts screaming as the plane suddenly rapidly descends and a large group of people — including a nun and monk — line up and take turns violently shaking and slapping her to try to get her to stop.
  Staff Aside
  The scene is obviously played for laughs lampooning the idea that if a woman panics, you can shake or slap her to get her to stop screaming. But making light of a woman panicking and being physically assaulted actually normalizes the behavior and perpetuates stereotypes. And can you imagine a group of people lining up to slap a screaming man?

• A culture of toxic masculinity on the right has driven them to support more aggressive and confrontational approaches to politics over decorum and respect
• Republicans are much more likely to justify or downplay assault on their part and much less likely to apologize than Democrats