I’m sorry, but I laughed instead of wringing my hands when I read that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had referred to his Democratic opponents who catered to special interests as “girlie men.”
That, of course, was a reference to the famous “Hans and Franz” parody of Schwarzenegger on “Saturday Night Live,” Nice self-deprecating wit from California’s popular movie star-turned Republican governor. But did it ever bring out the PC brigade screaming!
“Blatant homophobia!” cried Democratic Sen. Sheila Kuehl, known as the most humorless and terrifying of California’s legislative viragos. As the Washington Post reported:
“‘It uses an image that is associated with gay men in an insulting way, and it was supposed to be an insult. That’s very troubling that he would use such a homophobic way of trying to put down legislative leadership,’ said Kuehl, one of five members of the Legislature’s five-member Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus….
“Assemblyman Mark Leno, a San Francisco Democrat who is chairman of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus, said…it was ‘as misogynist as it is anti-gay.'”
Other Democratic lawmakers seemed to realize that such ideological shrieking would make them sound like, well, girlie men. California Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez, for example, said that he wasn’t offended by Schwarzenegger’s “very, very insensitive comment,” but his 13-year-old daughter was.
And it must be noted that few Americans so far have been horrified by Schwarzenegger’s remark. An America Online poll asks the following question: “Did Schwarzenegger go too far with his ‘girlie men’ comment?” As of 10 a.m. today, out of some 210,000 respondents, 70 percent voted “no,” and only 27 percent voted “yes.”