Westworld star Thandiwe Newton has spoken out against fellow actor Sean Penn's recent ill-received comments about American men becoming too "feminized," and she did not mince words.
Penn's comments about "cowardly genes" inspiring "wildly feminized" men to wear "skirts" sounded right out of the alt-right playbook and the backlash was swift, including from some of the normally progressive-minded star's peers.
But none of them were quite so blunt as Newton.
In a tweet sent directly to Penn, Newton slammed his comments, calling him "tragic" and a "jibbering FOOL."
See her tweet below.
.\u2066@SeanPenn\u2069 Dude what are you SAY-ING?? Like for REAL? You\u2019re a jibbering FOOL. MF you used to be sexy but now you\u2019re just tragic Men for Becoming 'Feminized' - Varietyhttps://variety.com/2022/film/news/sean-penn-criticizes-men-feminized-1235166106/\u00a0\u2026— Thandiwe Newton (@Thandiwe Newton) 1643574913
Tagging Penn, Newton wrote:
"@SeanPenn 🤣🤣🤣 Dude what are you SAY-ING?? Like for REAL? You’re a jibbering FOOL."
"MF you used to be sexy but now you’re just tragic 😤 "
But she wasn't done there. Newton added a reply to her tweet in which she implored Penn to do better by his daughter and implied that the furor over his weird gender hang-ups threatened to eclipse Penn's latest film, director PT Anderson's Oscar-buzzy Licorice Pizza.
In front of your DAUGHTER!? That poor little mite. Thank God her Mum\u2019s so dope. Please stop ruining the brilliance of #LicoricePizza with this nonsense.— Thandiwe Newton (@Thandiwe Newton) 1643575115
Penn's comments originally surfaced in an interview with the UK's iNews, in which he lamented that American men have become "wildly feminized."
“I am in the club that believes that men in American culture have become wildly feminized."
"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 then doubled on the comments in a subsequent interview, telling The Independent:
"There are a lot of, I think, cowardly genes that lead to people surrendering their jeans and putting on a skirt.”
Such statements are practically identical to rhetoric heard in far-right legislative attacks on transgender people and from hate groups like January 6 conspirators the Proud Boys, who bill themselves as "Western chauvinists" seeking to preserve so-called traditional masculinity (along with white supremacy, anti-semitism, and other ills).
For Newton's part, she's never shied away from speaking her mind. In a recent interview with British Vogue, Newton called out racism in the entertainment industry, and in 2020 she called out Hollywood mogul Amy Pascal and megastar Tom Cruise for their mistreatment of her while working together.
And as they did then, several people on Twitter applauded Newton for not being afraid to call out Penn for his ridiculous comments.
What she said.https://twitter.com/ThandiweNewton/status/1487887144110772224\u00a0\u2026— Melissa Silverstein (@Melissa Silverstein) 1643654525
This is the best take. Lol. Except he was never sexy.— Olga Wolstenholme (@Olga Wolstenholme) 1643685569
I've liked her since Flirting but when Thandiwe simply ran out of f*cks, stopped mincing words & started naming names I came to truly love her— Patience\ud83c\udc04\ufe0f (@Patience\ud83c\udc04\ufe0f) 1643660618
My queen!pic.twitter.com/DfvrWnHZ6c— Tinda Zaszcek (@Tinda Zaszcek) 1643705698
All hail Thandiwe Newton. She's calling out Sean Penn for saying men are becoming too feminized: "You\u2019re a jibbering fool\u2026you used to be sexy but now you\u2019re just tragic...Please stop ruining the brilliance of \u2018Licorice Pizza\u2019 with this nonsense.\u201d https://variety.com/2022/film/news/thandiwe-newton-sean-penn-men-feminized-1235167687/\u00a0\u2026 @Variety— Zack Sharf (@Zack Sharf) 1643657341
I saw Sean Penn trending the other day and knew not to click. The man might make some good movies, but I'd never want to be in the same room as him. \n\nThandi, now she is awesome and amazing and I'd much rather read what she has to say about anything.https://twitter.com/ThandiweNewton/status/1487887144110772224\u00a0\u2026— Nicola Needs Her Coffee Smith (@Nicola Needs Her Coffee Smith) 1643724112
Tell him! https://twitter.com/ThandiweNewton/status/1487887144110772224\u00a0\u2026— Jos\u00e9 Madrid (@Jos\u00e9 Madrid) 1643657725
This woman can shred Sean Penn alive while carrying what's left of the Westworld trainwreck on her bare shoulders like an utter cast iron legend.https://twitter.com/ThandiweNewton/status/1487887144110772224\u00a0\u2026— MilesTheJunkman #PeopleOverProfits (@MilesTheJunkman #PeopleOverProfits) 1643655303
Thank you @ThandiweNewton for calling him out. You rock!!!— Se\u00e1n O'Neil (@Se\u00e1n O'Neil) 1643578106
We're certain that #ThandiweNewton wins "best clapback" award for her recent Twitter posthttps://l8r.it/D54q— Stylist Magazine (@Stylist Magazine) 1643726712
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