In today’s pro-mo for Jimmy Kimmel’s show he said “Donald Jennifer Trump” as an insult.
It really bothers me that someone with such a big audience is using a woman’s name to demean a man. Is he so clueless that he doesn’t realize he’s putting down all women by doing this? He’s perpetuating the sexist thinking that women are less than men, and that he can humiliate a man by calling him a woman.
I considered putting this rant in Say It Here, but I want to know if others are as irritated by this as I am.
Then I hit, “Is he so clueless that he doesn’t realize he’s putting down all women by doing this?”
Whoa. Stopped me in my tracks. You’re right. It’s one of many ways old ideas about women perpetuate. We barely notice.
Two friends study how language, word choices, etc, reflect attitude, send messages, often on a subconscious level. One’s an academic, the other a business consultant.
Sadly, there are also ways we women do this sort of thing.
I agree that this is wrong. I hope that he hears the feedback and learns from it. I know from experience that people can see the error of their ways and make positive changes in their thoughts & actions. I have been blessed to be put in situations where others helped me to open my mind and see things through the eyes of another person whose experiences did not mirror my own. May we all be open to truly hearing, and may we not fear changing as a result of what we hear.
@lookingforward, that sounds like a fascinating subject to study. I’m very curious to hear their reaction to this, if you have a chance to ask them about it.
Jimmy Kimmel started his career on a show about beer, “The Man Show” It was as sexists and would likely not be shown today on TV. The show was called the “Man Show” It was like a bad frat house video. Truly appalling.
I remember watching it once and he had a woman on a trampoline jumping around for his pleasure. Certainly not high on the list of things I wanted to watch. I vaguely remember he was standing in the audience with a beer.
I honestly don’t care what ANY celebrity thinks about ANYthing. I find most to be boorish at best. My kids don’t either. We have a family joke about what does X(celebrity) think about it.
So I don’t know if that makes you feel better or worse. But he certainly has insulted many in his career.
Prior to Kimmel’s current show, he once co-hosted a show called “The Man Show” that seemed to exploit women.
According to a description:
" The Man Show is particularly well known for its buxom female models, the Juggy Dance Squad , who would dance in themed, revealing costumes at the opening of every show, in the aisles of the audience just before The Man Show went to commercial break, and during the end segment “Girls onTrampolines”.
Kimmel also took “a break” from his show several months ago after having used “black face.”
I like that there is a movement to claim “like a girl” for girls. “Yes, I RUN LIKE A GIRL, try to keep up.” “Don’t you wish you could SKI LIKE A GIRL.”
When coaching mixed groups, I shut down the pejorative “like a girl” whenever I hear it. Given similar training, preteen and early teen girls are often taller, stronger, faster, and more coordinated than boys.
“Like a girl” is interesting, subject to interpretation. So not necessarily pejorative. (I do think we need a nanosecond, at least, to run the sniff test.)
Other sorts of cracks bother me more. Especially when they’re revealing subconscious attitudes…and so easily subconsciously accepted by the hearer. In many cases, could be a loaded message.
We often don’t even notice, and that’s the danger.
I used to kinda like Kimmel, and I definitely don’t like Trump, and I agree with you 100%. It was inappropriate, sexist, and homophobic, and transphobic.
If our kids are still using this type of insult in the playground, that means that we are failing as parents and teachers,
Randy Rainbow also does this, using the middle name Jessica.
My take on it: since DJT is infamous for giving people derogative nicknames, they are turning the tables by giving him a nickname they know would particularly bother him. But that’s just a theory on my part.
It’s a bad look for men in particular to do this. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever heard but there’s a whiff of misogyny. He’s a comedian, I get it, but I don’t think it’s funny enough to be worth it.
I will sometimes laugh at misogynistic jokes but the funny has to offset the mean (or dumb.) JMO
It’s also a little sad that he apparently repackaged someone else’s joke.
I despise the term “like a girl” About 5 years ago, there were tons of tee shirts with that written and girls (mostly tweens) were wearing them. Why?
Siloing folks and putting them in fixed categories based on their sex isn’t healthy. If you write like a girl then the next phrase is a comparison. Stupid at best, unhealthy and perpetuates male v. female comparisons. My kids saw this a lot in math groups. When you get kids who are regional, national + competitors, there was nearly always one boy who would go around talking in this manner. Infuriating. Most of the kids on our team learned to ignore these dolts. We even had a few boys shut this down but a couple of girls quit these teams because of antiquated attitudes summed up in “like a girl”, boys are better in X etc.
And asking kids to retort with yes like a girl, then adding why girls are better is playing into this silly stereotype. Respect isn’t based on being a boy or girl.
My kids have been into STEM things for a long long time and with boys and girls on the team, they would recoil at any of this type of talk.
Imo, “like a girl” is subject to interpretation. Just my opinion.
Starting my career, I hated being referred to as a girl or one of the girls.
Older, I’ve taken the terms(s,) as my own, my choice, when I will. “The girls I go to dinner with” or however. My friends aren’t offended. It can be seen as reflecting our mutual affection.
BUT, it can also not be. I do think we benefit from thinking about this entire issue.
Yes, I have no issue with talking about the girls or using the word girl, at all. But it’s the phrase “like a girl” which tweaks me.
I’ll leave the empowerment issue aside. I’ve often found that things which are beyond their expiration date are used as empowerment issues. Is the achievement impressive? Why does it matter what sex the person is?
I’m older so my perception is it’s silly. For my kids and their friends, it’s more of a raised eyebrow or even a bit of anger.
Naturally, others don’t all share my opinions. Parents were buying those"like a girl shirts" so obviously they thought it was “empowering”
