Hey everyone, you're listening to Code Switch from NPR.

I'm B.A. Parker.

And I'm Gene Demby.

So a couple of days ago, we did an episode about Mar-a-Lago face, which is this very specific aesthetic.

Dramatic sort of makeup, heavy on the eyeliner, like long, flowing hair.

The outfits tend to be very close to the body,

pushing a very sort of like hyper feminine look in traditional conservative senses. And it's not just the women that are trying to fit in, right? Like there was that recent photo of Marco Rubio,

who was wearing shoes gifted to him by President Trump.

And those shoes were too big because the president, I guess, has this thing where he likes

to guess people's shoe sizes.

And apparently Trump sees having big ass feet as a sign of manliness.

And so now you've got the Secretary of State walking around in shoes that are way too big

for him. And of course you got Pete

Heggseth, who is obviously obsessed with a very showy masculinity. Like to the point, as we talked

about recently, he was beefing with the Boy Scouts were being too soft. So like Trump World is just

kind of generally obsessed with how people perform gender. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, I.O, who we talked to for our

first episode on this, says it's all an intentional play to fit in with the Trump aesthetic ideals.

Like, this is a look that shows your potential employer, your boss, the most powerful man in the

United States, that you are willing to conform and to appeal to his taste.

It's almost like a line in your resume. Yeah, it's kind of a way to brand yourself as loyal to Trump world.

Right, and that self-branding also tries really hard to set clear boundaries around gender.

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