Two-time Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn has come under fire for comments about “feminized” men in a recent interview. Predictably, Twitter has thoughts.
Penn made the remarks while promoting the drama Flag Day in which he stars alongside his daughter, Dylan.
Speaking to The Independent, Penn said, “I think that men have, in my view, become quite feminized. I have these very strong women in my life who do not take masculinity as a sign of oppression toward them.”
The actor added, “There are a lot of, I think, cowardly genes that lead to people surrendering their jeans and putting on a skirt.”
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The comments follow remarks Penn made earlier this month, which also criticized men becoming more feminine.
“I am in the club that believes that men in American culture have become wildly feminized,” Penn told UK outlet iNews. “I don’t think that being a brute or having insensitivity or disrespect for women is anything to do with masculinity, or ever did. But I don’t think that [in order] to be fair to women, we should become them.”
Penn, who won an Oscar for playing LGBTQ rights icon Harvey Milk, most recently appeared in Licorice Pizza, playing Golden Age Hollywood star William Holden.
Since his comments, Twitter had exploded with criticism for the actor…
I'm sorry, but is this the same Sean Penn who won an Oscar (and several other awards) for portraying gay icon Harvey Milk? https://t.co/cwyYUsZEBV
— Yves' Pinned Tweet (@AdamantxYves) January 28, 2022
Sean Penn, who won an Oscar for playing a gay civil rights icon, is out there being homophobic. When LGBTQ+ people express reluctance to straight actors playing queer roles, this is exactly the kind of shit we're talking abouthttps://t.co/zqIgYFZSO7
— Resting Intense Face (R.I.F.) (@Nico_Lang) January 28, 2022
Sean Penn being homophobic is on trend with his brand. ?
— ???Dannie D??? (@DannieD01) January 29, 2022
Finally got this episode finished! Sorry for being late (and not calling out low-key/mid-key jackass Sean Penn).
Listen on your podcast apps or https://t.co/Q8ihXqdiA9#PearlJam #LostDogs #BetterBandPod https://t.co/L3rKPLLGA5 pic.twitter.com/t4uTvWSDo0— Listen Up Podcasts (@ListenUpReno) January 31, 2022
Remembering that time Mickey Rourke called out Sean Penn for playing Harvey Milk, saying he's the
most homophobic dude he knows.— my life with the blue öyster thrill kill kult (@phonyestate) January 29, 2022
I blame the cowards raising them.
Sean Penn says American men have become 'feminized,' blames 'cowardly genes'https://t.co/bioX3LHKvi
— KennyLetter3 aka The Neanderthal (@KennyLetter3) January 31, 2022
Sean Penn giving advice on masculinity is like a dolphin giving advice on how to live in the desert.
— Faol Wolf (@OFaolainWolf) January 31, 2022
Sean Penn be like pic.twitter.com/nOMUKKpaVI
— Cinema Collector (@CinemaCoIIector) January 28, 2022
Sean Penn doesn't need to exist when Jeff Goldblum is out here killing it. pic.twitter.com/CFIns9niI1
— Inartful Tweeter: Just Terribly Worded Not Racist (@420AttyChicago) January 28, 2022
I feel sorry for Sean Penn. He won an Oscar for playing one of the most iconic queer leaders in American history, and yet, even the preparation he did for that role failed to liberate him from the prison of his own gendered insecurity. Being Sean Penn is punishment in itself.
— Charlotte Clymer ???? (@cmclymer) January 28, 2022
Sean Penn says American men have become 'feminized,' blames 'cowardly genes' for men "putting on a skirt." Well ?@SeanPenn?, don’t wear a “skirt” if you don’t want to. https://t.co/xBKwHkvRHV
— David Romero (@DavidRomero777) January 31, 2022
If your concept of manhood is so fragile an article of women’s clothing threatens it, maybe you need to reevaluate (@ Sean Penn)
— i used to be cool (@Superprattual) January 31, 2022
sean penn: men been feminized idk maybe genes
jeff goldblum: sounds like a you problem, sean pic.twitter.com/s6QOCaI5N0
— meg (@the_meghaning) January 29, 2022
Well my days of not taking Sean Penn seriously are certainly coming to a middle.
— J.M Seaborn (@JMSeaborn) January 29, 2022
bachy
For decades now, a certain percentage of women have been adopting traditionally masculine traits (including wearing square-shouldered “men’s” business suits), while the larger percentage of women have adhered to traditionally feminine dress and behavior. Some women approve the trend, others consider it a betrayal of their gender.
The reverse is happening now with men. Some men like the trend, others consider it a betrayal of their gender. You do you, Sean.
EddieB
“approve the trend” of women wearing suits and pants??!! Betrayal of their gender? Have you been coffee klatsching with the gals in the nursing home again?
bachy
I’m referencing the “cross-dressing” issue in feminist history.
Bosch
It’s strange. The beatniks rejected gender norms in the 50s. The hippies rejected gender norms in the 60s and 70s. Pop culture androgyny rejected gender norms in the 80s. Both goth culture and all that florescent magenta rejected gender norms in the 90s. And yet every bigot in the 21st century is like “nowadays blabla woke culture blabla when I was your age yada yada”
It seems a common trait for bigots to have absolutely no awareness of the history of our species, even if they were alive in those same decades.
Bosch
I forgot to mention the cabaret-style androgyny of the 30s, popularized by German media. You-know-who wasn’t such a fan…
DarkZephyr
This is an excellent point.
Jim
Interesting that our present concept of masculinity, or should I say the concept as people such as Penn see it is actually only around 100 years old!!!
People things change get over it.
ingyaom
That’s some very gay looking artwork over Sean’s shoulder.
KW1969
Meanwhile, his dime store, at-home dye job needs an update. He’s a mess.
kareem
Hollywood would hired homophobes ( Matt Damon, Sean…) for gay roles rather than openly gay actors
Ronbo
Manufacturing enemies without listening to what those people actually said has a lot in common with bigotry. Matt is a straignt ally.
MrMichaelJ
If straight men would like to know what it takes to be a real man they should come out as gay for just one day. No sex involved, just come out to your family, your friends, your church, etc. The vast majority of them would crumble in an instance. it takes balls to be an out and gay man.
CNY1983
I guess when youre SHORTER THAN MADONNA you have to pick on someone else to seem gigantic. Really Sean? WHo cares what you think or say? I dont.
Troyfight
@CNY1983 great comment….blasted out laughing…. moreover, Sean is always a mess
inbama
Nothing homophobic at all.
Go read the original interview in The Independent – he’s talking about straight men in relationships with women.
Ronbo
Give an extremist a match and they can set the mob on fire.
I’m so glad that they weren’t around to attack Liz Taylor and our other allies when were building a movment.
scotty
slow “news day?” mountains out of not even a not even worth the time i spent typing. thanks though.
Deacon
CHEERS to Sean Penn for speaking the truth!!!!!! The alphabet community needs to be called on on it’s love of TOXIC FEMININITY, and before you come out your neck and attempt to accuse me of internalized homophobia, I embrace my BLACKNESS I embrace being SAME GENDER LOVING and I embrace being MASCULINE!!!!! Gay or straight if you’re a masculine male no matter wat you ethnicity you’re automatically accused of being toxic. Being a masculine male doesn’t mean you hate women or gays.
Bosch
I don’t think people will accuse you of being toxic just because you’re masculine, that’s not a real thing. Plenty of men are hypermasculine and lovingly warm at the same time.
People may accuse you of being toxic because of messages like this one though, with blaming and caps and using a phrase like “alphabet community”.
Ronbo
Bosch, good catch spotting the toxicity. Please address ALL the unnecessary hateful works, division and name-calling here at Queerty – especially the out-of-context quotes and stories. Someone here didn’t read the entire story of why Matt Damon apologized.
We learn from listening and conversing.
Bosch
“ALL the unnecessary hateful works, division and name-calling here at Queerty”
Hold on a hot moment. Aren’t you the guy who kept calling me dumb, a liar, and naive, for no other reason than our differing views on censorship?
Practice what you preach.
white-queer-african
SammyyyBbbb MIA?
LumpyPillows
At some point you people may wise up to these cookie cutter clickbait posts. They are all the same: cull a sentence or two out of contest from a long interview someone gave who is trying to discuss something complicated; spin it as a crime against humanity; then spend 99% of the article copying Twitter snark for cancel-culture vultures. Some of these vultures even comment how incongruous the statements are to what we actually now about the person, without bothering to investigate why the story may not be accurate.
And you all just blindly pile on. At best you’re lazy, but ironically think you’re some sort of champion. That’s sad. And no, I ill not be reading your personal attacks because you can’t deal with what I wrote. That just makes you pathetic.
Bosch
Hahaha you attack us and then you say personal attacks are pathetic.
Great self-awareness there.
Ronbo
The comment is about it being out of context clickbait. And the truth is that it has you on the attack. He even previewed how individuals here seem trained to respond in a hateful manner.
We won the war against exclusion; maybe it’s time to holster the hate against allies and people who who have different, more nuanced opinions.
Bosch
@Ronbo most of the messages up there are discussing gender roles and what it means to be a man. That’s hardly what I’d call “piling it on”.
“At best you’re lazy, but ironically think you’re some sort of champion[…] That just makes you pathetic” <- obviously I was referring to this, not to the clickbait comment.
Polaro
@Bosch he did not attack you or anyone else directly or personally. You did exactly what he said you would and replied to him directly in a nasty way, without addressing any of the ideas he presented. You also probably did not read the interview…which goes to the point. You did call Sean a bigot who was ignorant of history. Perhaps that is right, but you did not bother to read the interview, so… Perhaps more thinking and less attacking?
mailliw110
I’m still wondering why he didn’t get a Oscar for playing Spicolli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High!
gaym50ish
Sean Penn was a really ugly drag queen in the movie “This Must Be the Place.” Is that what he’s pissed about?