President Donald Trump recently used the term “sissy” in a way many would find offensive — and it represents an overall “disturbing” trend, one professor in public humanities said.
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In a post on his Truth Social platform in the last few weeks, the president unleashed his grievances about a new rule in the NFL that evidently has not been sitting well with him. He slammed the league for its “ridiculous looking new Kickoff Rule.”
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“How can they make such a big and sweeping change so easily and quickly. It’s at least as dangerous as the ‘normal’ kickoff, and looks like hell,” he wrote. “The ball is moving, and the players are not, the exact opposite of what football is all about.”
″‘Sissy’ football is bad for America, and bad for the NFL!” he continued.
The NFL has implemented what it calls its new “dynamic kickoff rule,” which, among several changes, moves the kickoffs to the 35-yard line instead of the 30 and places players from both teams closer together to help eliminate high-speed collisions. The league has said its intention with the change was to improve safety for the players and to increase the rate of returns to make the game more exciting.
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While the word “sissy” may have several different meanings and connotations, the context in which Trump used the term on Truth Social mirrors a long history of the word being used in a derogatory way, explained Deepak Sarma, inaugural distinguished scholar in the public humanities at Case Western Reserve University.
“Trump’s comments are reflective of [a] flourishing culture of toxic masculinity, where negative and simplistic gender stereotypes are being flaunted, encouraged and deployed,” they told HuffPost.
“The term ‘Sissy’ is and has been used in a derogatory fashion to belittle men who do not fit the ideal of hyper-masculinity and who might even have a proclivity towards characteristics typically (and stereotypically) associated with women,” they continued. “As a result, he insults both men who do not fit this imaginary model and women, viewed as weak, timid, and oversensitive.”
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Sarma said that Trump’s comments, which were “ironically intended to display his own invented and imagined hypermasculinity,” draw attention to his “cowardice,” his controversies and allegations involving women, and his medical exemptions from the military. (Trump has never served in the military. He received a medical deferment during the Vietnam War with a physician’s letter stating he was diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels.)
“While much of his macho MAGA minion base embraces his exaggerated displays of traditional male dominance, aggression, and toughness, it is mocked and parodied by much of the world,” Sarma said.
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“As [George] Orwell so perfectly portrayed in his 1984, controlling discourse has significant consequences and can normalize abuse, injustice, and discrimination,” they later continued. “It is appalling and mortifying that Trump normalizes abuse, injustice, and discrimination, especially in the context of his social media presence.”
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Sarma also cautioned that Trump’s social media post about the NFL reflects a “disturbing” trend in which the use of some derogatory terms is becoming more popular online.
“The trend is dangerous and disturbing,” they said. “While it can be perceived as a backlash against ‘woke political correctness,’ it is also a hyperbolic over-correction which will lead (and is intended to do so) to violence.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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