Life

Jonathan Van Ness slams Sean Penn for “ignorant” masculinity comments

By Conor Clark

3rd February 2022

Photos: Instagram and YouTube [GQ]

Jonathan Van Ness has hit back at Sean Penn after he made an array of questionable comments about masculinity.

The Oscar-winning actor criticised men for becoming “quite feminised” and explained that the way to respect women isn’t to “become them”.

He told The Independent: “I am in the club that believes that men in American culture have become wildly feminised… I don’t think that [in order] to be fair to women, we should become them.”

When asked to clarify his opinion, he attributed a lot of his issues to “cowardly genes”.

“I think that men have, in my view, become quite feminised,” Penn continued. “I have these very strong women in my life who do not take masculinity as a sign of oppression toward them. There are a lot of, I think, cowardly genes that lead to people surrendering their jeans and putting on a skirt.”

After seeing the comments on Twitter, Van Ness swiftly hit back at the 61-year-old’s remarks.

“First of all I’m binary,” they wrote on 2 February. “Second, @SeanPenn your remarks are ignorant, transphobic, and devoid of intelligence. My cowardly genes have more strength, resolve, and beauty than you could understand. Sean is suffering from toxic masculinity & needs to watch Getting Curious.”

Van Ness’ message was a quote tweet including a screenshot of the Daily Mail’s coverage of what Penn said, which she also criticised.

“@MailOnline this headline and entire story is so tired,” the Queer Eye star added.

Van Ness came out as non-binary in 2019 and uses he/she/they pronouns.

“Some days I feel like a man, but then other days I feel like a woman,” he said at the time.

“I don’t really — I think my energies are really all over the place. Any opportunity I have to break down stereotypes of the binary, I am down for it, I’m here for it.

“I think that a lot of times gender is used to separate and divide. It’s this social construct that I don’t really feel like I fit into the way I used to.

“I always used to think ‘Oh, I’m like a gay man’, but I think any way I can let little boys and little girls know that they can express themselves and they can like be… is really important and exciting.”