Girlie Men - Schwarzenegger's Usage

Schwarzenegger's Usage

The term was first used by Schwarzenegger in the 1988 Presidential election, accompanied by then Vice President George H.W. Bush. He was shown attacking Bush's opponents, saying “They all look like a bunch of girlie men, right?" He repeated it in the 1992 election, then campaigning for President Bush, again applying it to the Democratic candidates, as seen in the 1992 documentary Feed by Kevin Rafferty and James Ridgeway. He used the phrase again on July 17, 2004, where he stated "f they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers ...' if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men." He would use the term twice in the speech.

Schwarzenegger would later use the term at the 2004 Republican National Convention, where he implored the audience not to be pessimistic about the economy, saying "Don't be economic girlie men."

Schwarzenegger received some criticism from various gay rights and feminist groups. California State Senator Sheila Kuehl, who is a member of the legislature's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus, claimed that the governor had resorted to "blatant homophobia," stating that the phrase "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." Jeff Bissiri, the Log Cabin Republicans' California Director, responded to Kuehl's statements on behalf of Schwarzenegger, stating that "the Governor’s use of the term ‘girlie man’ was not a slur aimed at the gay and lesbian community and Senator Kuehl knows that...Where was her outrage when the Bustamante campaign referred to candidate Schwarzenegger as a ‘sissy’ for not agreeing to an endless series of debates?"