Sean Penn Very Scientifically Blames ‘Cowardly Genes’ for Men Embracing Skirts

Sean Penn wants you to know he’s a macho man. The actor recently told iNews that he thinks American men have been “wildly feminized” and doubled down on his comments Thursday, criticizing men who choose to wear skirts.

“There has been an absence of male behavior,” the 61-year-old told the British publication. “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.”

Notably, in the late Eighties, Madonna — who Penn married in 1984, and divorced in 1989 — accused him of hitting her in the face with a baseball bat while he was in jail for assaulting a film extra. She later filed a police report after he allegedly “smacked and roughed” the singer up while tied to a chair. (At the time, he was charged with felony domestic assault.)

On Thursday, in an interview with The Independent about his film Flag Day, the actor stood by his comments, adding that the “very strong women” in his life “do not take masculinity as a sign of oppression toward them.” He explained: “There are a lot of, I think, cowardly genes that lead to people surrendering their jeans and putting on a skirt.”

In 2018, the actor also told Today that he believes the #MeToo movement was a “respectable of the salacious” meant to “divide men and women.”

Penn’s interview comes just two days after Post Malone wore a skirt on the cover of Billboard and two years after Harry Styles rocked a dress on the cover of Vogue and “freaked out conservatives.”

But Sean, men being comfortable with their sexuality while wearing traditionally female clothing isn’t anything new. In 1999, Brad Pitt — well known for his masculinity — wore several dresses for a Rolling Stone cover shoot. And how can we forget the late Kurt Cobain and his floral print dresses in the early Nineties?

Perhaps Penn’s comments say more about his own masculinity’s fragility than they do the men who aren’t afraid to change up their wardrobes.