We Need to Talk About Armond

Towards a Theory of Toxic Masculinity and The White Lotus

The excellent Murray Bartlett as Armond on The White Lotus (HBO)

I rarely give a damn about any white male characters on a given TV show (or in just about every other form of media I consume). Right now, the only white men currently on TV I truly give a damn about are:

1. Joe Lo Truglio as Sgt. Charles Boyle on Brooklyn 99, the purest encapsulation of Weird Friend Energy ever put to screen.
2. Kentucky’s Own Michael Shannon as Napoleon on Nine Perfect Strangers, who was previously perfect as the Prohibition Agent Nelson Van Alden on Boardwalk Empire and as well as literally everything else he’s ever been in.
3. Brett Goldstein as Roy Kent on Ted Lasso (runner up: Jeremy Swift as Leslie Higgins the Comms Director, mainly because his character is an unabashed Wife Guy, but in an adorable way)
4. Andrew Rannells as Blair Pfaff on Black Monday (Okay, okay, literally everyone on that show is perfect.)

And always, of course, my legacy TV faves David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, and Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. Willam Riker, and Rod Serling. (Do I have a type? Who can say?!)

So if I’m being honest, The White Lotus, a show about white people on a resort written and directed by a white guy didn’t…