Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton attacked Texas state Rep. James Talarico by making a perplexing dig about testosterone. Experts in gender studies and politics say that fixations on testosterone are becoming more mainstream, and it’s all a part of a broader strategy to justify “aggression and dominance.”

During his primary runoff victory speech in Texas on Tuesday night, Paxton, the scandal-ridden MAGA ally of President Donald Trump, listed off a slew of Trump-esque offensive monikers for Talarico, such as “James Tala-freako,” “Six-gender Jimmy,” “Tofu Talarico” and “Low-T Talarico.”

Right-wingers have been ramping up their attacks against Talarico since he defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) in the Texas Democratic U.S. Senate primary back in March.

Among their criticisms of Talarico are attacks related to his outspoken support for transgender communities and his past remarks about animal welfare and veganism (Trump and other conservatives often mock Talarico for being a vegan, which he is not).

Right-wingers have also blasted the Democrat for his past comments saying “God is both masculine and feminine” and “nonbinary,” and for previously saying that there are more than two biological sexes. (Talarico has since said that he was referring to “a very small percentage of people who have these chromosomal abnormalities” and that he believes “they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”)

On Wednesday, Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff for policy, shared a picture of Talarico on X and called him Texas’ “first transgender senate candidate.”

And Paxton’s “Low-T” remark to his supporters highlights how conservatives have noticeably been increasingly fixated on using testosterone levels as another measure of masculinity.

Martin Naunov, assistant professor of political science and a faculty associate at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, said that what first came to mind when he heard Paxton’s “Low-T” dig was “that it’s weird, cringey, and ironic.”

He said that there’s an immediate obvious irony with Paxton’s remarks: “If testosterone really were the measure of manhood these men insist it is — tied to virility, strength, character — then someone with Paxton’s record of adultery and corruption allegations might want to be careful where he points.”

“He’s not an advertisement for whatever ‘high-T’ is supposed to deliver,” he told HuffPost.

Paxton has been plagued with several scandals and legal troubles spanning over a decade. Among them was in 2023, when the Texas House voted to impeach Paxton relating to allegations of bribery, obstruction and abuse of public trust. The Texas Senate, a jury of his peers, later acquitted him on all counts. His wife, Angela Paxton, who filed for divorce last year, had accused him of adultery.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has often vocalized concerns about low testosterone levels and waning sperm count, linking them to declining fertility rates, though researchers have said that the reason behind declining fertility is more nuanced.

In January, Kennedy even boasted about Trump’s supposed testosterone levels, claiming that Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, once said the president had the “highest testosterone levels that he’s ever seen for an individual over 70 years old.”

Naunov, whose expertise includes feminist and gender studies, said that the “fixation on gender/masculinity — and on testosterone as its biological stand-in — has clearly intensified and gone mainstream.”

“Testosterone levels have declined somewhat over recent decades, and that real trend has been seized as a symbol: proof that men are getting weaker, softer, that masculinity itself is in decline,” he said.

“RFK Jr. publicly marveling at the president’s hormone levels, a federal push to expand testosterone access, prescriptions climbing into the millions, [Vice President] JD Vance tying low testosterone to liberal politics ... what used to be fringe message-board conspiracy is now the same conspiracy mainstreamed,” he continued.

Naunov said that he thinks that testosterone levels have increasingly been used as a scapegoat that “conveniently locates the source of men’s troubles in feminists and LGBTQ people rather than in, say, staggering economic inequality.”

“Testosterone slots neatly into that frame as the proposed antidote — the miracle injection that reverses the ‘emasculating’ effects of liberal modernity,” he said. “It’s a biological answer to what is really a political and economic grievance.”

Kari J. Winter, a professor of American studies at the University at Buffalo whose expertise includes gender, feminism, race and class, said that when someone is accusing a man of being “low-T,” they are implying that “masculinity is rooted in biology (testosterone) and that all crimes and misdemeanors can be justified by ‘high testosterone.’”

″‘High-T’ is a variant on the toxic old permission slip: ‘Boys will be boys,’” she told HuffPost.

“I find it interesting that MAGA masculinity is completely about aggression and dominance,” she continued. “Like his master [Trump], Paxton has been accused of a long list of crimes, including financial corruption, bribery, securities fraud, obstruction of justice, abuse of office and adultery.”

“To justify behavior that is inexcusable. Paxton follows the Trump playbook of mockery, insults, and dehumanization,” she added. “In their topsy-turvy rhetoric, meat-eaters should be proud; vegans should be disqualified. Tofu? Terrible. Thou shalt not lie? Thou shalt not kill? Thou shalt not commit adultery? Are you kidding me?”

Winter said that as it relates to Talarico, “instead of pounding his chest,” she believes he embodies “genuine virtues of courage, compassion and honesty.”

“His potency has nothing to do with testosterone; it has everything to do with character, ethics and commitment,” she added.

Naunov said that by calling Talarico “Low-T” to his supporters, Paxton’s trying to convey that his Democratic opponent is not a real man and therefore cannot lead.

“The point is to evoke a gut-level association between masculinity and fitness for power,” he said. “My research on candidate evaluation finds voters across the political spectrum tend to prefer men who look more conventionally masculine.”

“But notice there’s no actual gender nonconformity to point at here,” he continued. “Talarico isn’t any less masculine-looking than Paxton. So they’re trying to manufacture the association and betting it does the work the facts won’t.”

Naunov also pointed out that Paxton is amplifying “manosphere” language and helping to make it become more mainstream. He argued that Paxton’s signaling to certain populations of men that he’s “one of you,” and that he’ll “fight for men’s place in America.”

Narratives surrounding toxic stereotypes about masculinity, differences between “alpha” and “beta” males were noticeably emphasized throughout Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Right-wing politicians and MAGA supporters have become increasingly vocal with questioning men’s masculinity by mockingly calling them “betas” or saying that have low testosterone.

Generally speaking, Naunov said that policing a man’s masculinity by calling him “Low-T” reveals a lot about a person: “Insecurity and projection — the men most fixated on policing other men’s masculinity are usually working hardest to shore up their own.”

Naunov pointed out that arguments that testosterone and masculinity go hand-in-hand treats the hormone “as a measure of a man’s worth, as if fitness to govern came back on a blood panel.”

“And notice what they’ve decided high testosterone looks like — not strength or steadiness, but aggression, dominance, the impulse to humiliate,” he said. “They’re scoring manhood by how much contempt a man can spew.”

“What they miss is, first, that scientific evidence is mixed,” he continued. “Testosterone’s relationship to mood, strength, even sexual function seems a lot more complicated, and testosterone injections can actually worsen things like fertility.”

Naunov also emphasized that while he’s seen that voters tend to prefer “masculine physicality in men,” they also reward traditionally feminine personality traits — warmth, empathy — often over masculine-coded ones like dominance and aggression.”

Overall, Naunov said that the motivation behind using the term “Low-T” comes down to status — and not so much what’s considered “traditional masculinity.”

“Look at the figures actually driving it: the crypto guys, the influencers, looksmaxxing, testosterone injections, men broadcasting their sex lives. There’s nothing traditional about any of that,” he said, adding he believes the driving force behind fixating on masculinity and testosterone is to widen the gap between men and women — and to emphasize the “standing of white, straight men.”

“Masculinity-challenging insults like ‘Low-T’ or ‘beta’ or ‘soyboy’ are status moves; they’re about in-group policing, a way of trying to keep other men in line so that the line between men and women holds, or gets more pronounced,” he said.

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