Thandiwe Newton, a British actress, has slammed Oscar winner actor Sean Penn's recent remarks that American men are becoming "wildly feminised." Penn, who won Oscars for The Milk and Mystic River, stirred eyebrows late last month when he stated that masculinity isn't always poisonous.
Newton responded by labelling the 61-year-old actor a "jibbering fool" on social media.
"@SeanPenn What are you SAY-ING, dude?" Do you want to play for real? You're a bumbling idiot. She replied, "You used to be sexy, but now you're simply tragic," with a link to a storey about Penn's comments. "You're doing this in front of your DAUGHTER!" That poor little cockroach. Thank goodness her mother is so cool. Please don't spoil #LicoricePizza's genius with this crap," she said.
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Penn made the comments in an interview with a publication in the United States.
"I'm one of a group of people who believe that guys in American culture have become wildly feminine. I don't believe that being a brute, or being insensitive to or disrespectful of women, has ever had anything to do with masculinity. But I don't believe we should become women in order to be fair to them," he had remarked.
Later, the actor was asked to clarify his remarks in an interview with the British daily The Independent.
"I believe that men have gotten fairly feminised in my opinion. In my life, I have some really powerful women who do not see masculinity as a symbol of oppression toward them. "I believe there are a lot of cowardly genes that cause people to give up their jeans and put on a skirt," he remarked.
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He was promoting his picture 'Flag Day' with his daughter, Dylan Penn, at the time.
Penn's statement about men becoming "very feminised," according to the Independent, left his daughter "silent, staring into space."
