Outgoing North Carolina Republican Representative Madison Cawthorn was soundly mocked after he used his final speech on the floor of the House of Representatives to rail against "soft metrosexuals."
Cawthorn, who lost his GOP primary in June, called on men to "stand resolute against the dying light of America's golden age" adding "social media has weakened us, siphoning our men of their will to fight.”
It was an oddball moment for a member of Congress who scandalized the GOP after he was photographed wearing women's lingerie in public, taped while being groped by a male staffer and was forced to address a video clip that shows him naked in bed and making thrusting motions on top of another man.
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Cawthorn said:
"Our young men are taught that weakness is strength, that delicacy is desirable, and that being a soft metrosexual is more valuable than training the mind, body, and soul."
"Social media has weakned us, siphoning our men of their will to fight, to rise in a noble manner, square their jaws, and charge once more to the brink of life to defend what they love."
"So on this precipice of disaster, I ask the young men of this nation a question: Will you sit behind a screen while the stories [and] tales of your forefathers become myth or will you stand resolute against the dying light of America's golden age?"
"Will you reclaim your masculinity? Will you become a man to be feared, to be respected, to be looked up to, or will you let this nation's next generation be its final generation?"
Many have criticized Hawthorn and pointed out the hypocrisy of his statements given a slew of scandals that have caused many to question his sexuality.
Republicans have a record of devoting significant time to what they perceive as a calculated nationwide effort to attack masculinity.
In April, Fox News personality Tucker Carlson released the trailer for The End of Men, a film which starts off warning viewers about dropping testosterone levels, includes footage of shirtless white men wrestling, doing push-ups, chopping wood, firing guns, and even, yes, lying naked while getting their groin tanned.
The content of the trailer for The End of Men is particularly odd given Carlson's long record of homophobic commentary, which has received more coverage in recent months due to his repeated attacks against Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whom he has mocked for taking paternity leave and "trying to figure out how to breastfeed."
But the notion that masculinity is being attacked—namely by the left-wing—is a popular one among Republicans like Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who last year accused "the Left" of hurting "the future of the American man" and went on to claim that the "deconstruction of America begins with and depends on the deconstruction of American men."
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