I think the point of using “like a girl” is taking back the phrase and using it as empowering. The phrase “You throw/run/play like a girl” was meant to be insulting and demeaning. Women and girls took it on to show that girls sports had worth and that many boys could not keep up.
There are physical difference by gender. When we (I am also older) there were virtually no teams for girls (look back at your HS yearbook). Now there are almost as many teams for girls as there are for boys. Women still lag in power and prestige in most fields. It was historic and way overdue for a woman to become VP of this country.
But stereotypes and negative images remain. Tough women are still often looked down on or called negative names and, as Kimmel showed, some think calling a man by a feminine name is a funny insult. It is not.
Thank goodness for Title IX. I’m older but we had lots of sports due to the nature of the school. We had everything but football for girls. And they made every girl play a sport. I don’t think that was common in the 1980’s at every school.
But without Title IX women’s sports teams would not be required. Title IX has given women the power to compete.
I don’t follow Kimmel at all and I don’t want to defend him if he doesn’t deserve it, but I’m starting wonder… at least a couple other late-night type comedians have been referring to Trump by various random nicknames. Is that what’s going on? Is he only using female middle names, or are they a part of a series of “silly” names of all kinds?
I actually never heard of this trend, but I don’t watch late-night TV. The only similar thing is when the Dad from “Everyone loves Raymond” would insult his sons and say “ok, Nancy”. I actually thought that was funny.
I loved Frank on that show. He was often rude and sexist, but the way it was presented was funny, and made it clear how ridiculous his ideas were. Kind of like Archie Bunker and George Jefferson, I loved those shows growing up. Any of those shows would probably result in a media frenzy now, back then people could actually laugh at themselves.
One of S’s third grade teachers was fired for doing this, in addition to a few other things. He changed a lot of their names, calling Andrew Andrea, Conrad Connie, etc. He was a jerk! The kids took notes about all the dates / times this happened and went to the principal. This was a good life lesson for these kids. It did take some time for the school district to get rid of this guy, but thank goodness they did!
It is maddening that insults to women are not taken seriously by the media, by corporations or by popular culture. Recently a country music singer was cancelled by his recording company and by radio stations because he used a racial slur while drunk.
Yet nothing like this happens when the words are slurs against women. Grrrr.
I recently heard a colleague call a young coworker “Baby Girl.” Arrrrgggghhhh! He was on his way out at the time, and it took me a moment to realize what had just been said. I will speak to him about it next time I see him. I don’t know if the young woman was bothered by it. I was.