Philip Bump, “‘Man Up’: John Kerry Adopts the Battle Cry of the Politically Powerless” (Washington Post, The Fix, May 28, 2014)
In 2010, after a series of uses of the term by political candidates, language expert Ben Zimmer wrote about the phrase’s history as a rhetorical tool. He was reacting to, among other incidents, Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s demand that Sen. Harry Reid “man up,” and Sarah Palin’s insistence that the Republican Party “man up” and back tea party candidates. Zimmer also pointed to this exhaustive list compiled in October 2010 outlining more than a dozen uses of the phrase prior to that point.
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