Girlie men
July 19, 2004
There seem to be a furor over Gov. Arnold’s calling girlie men the legislators who refuse to sit down and finish their work on the budget. Professor James Joyner and Boi From Troy have the background info. BFT says:
If they understood the homoeroticism between SNL’s Hanz and Franz, they would understand the real meaning of girlie men–those who are too weak to fight back and represent themselves. There are too many members of the State Legislature who fit this mold–those who are beholden to the theocracy of the religious right or those beholden to the theocracy of big government on the left…and too few who are joining with the Governor to represent the rest of us Californians.
I have no idea why his speech’s detractors call his comments homophobic. If anything, the derisive context of “girly” in this case perpetuates the idea that weakness, not finishing what they start, along with cowardice, are feminine qualities. I think feministes should be the ones up in arms over this.
One Comment to Girlie men
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I don’t see “girly-men” as derogatory to women. However, I do feel he should have used “wimps” or even “wusses” (although some would feel the latter term is similar to “girly-men”).
He made his point, though.