Schwarzenegger." Jeff Bissiri, the Log Cabin Republicans' California Director, defended Schwarzenegger, responding to Kuehl's statements by stating that "the Governor's use of the term 'girlie man' was not a slur aimed at the gay and lesbian community and Senator Kuehl knows that ... Where was her outrage when the Bustamante campaign referred to candidate Schwarzenegger as a 'sissy' for not agreeing to an endless series of debates?" Regrets In an October 2018 interview with Men's Health magazine, Schwarzenegger expressed regret for using the phrase: At the time it felt like the right thing to do. It was in my gut. I improvised it. I called them girlie men because they weren't willing to take risks. They were afraid of everything. Politicians in general want to do little things so there's no risk involved. But it was shortsighted. In the long term, it's better to not say that, because you want to work with them. Other public uses The term, popularized initially by the Saturday Night Live sketch, received new life following Schwarzenegger's usage. New York Times opinion columnist Maureen Dowd quoted a Democratic insider who claimed that 2004 Presidential candidate John Kerry had "turned into a girlie man". Hans and Franz, a bodybuilding duo on Saturday Night Live, often used the term to talk about "pathetic, flabby losers". This term has been carried over to the State Farm commercials. Jack Kemp, former Republican Congressman and Vice Presidential Nominee, used the phrase in criticizing Democratic economic policies in his column "Don't be economic girlie-men." In the video game Get Medieval the barbarian character spoofs Schwarzenegger's voice and thick accent and refers to the hordes of opponents as "girliemonsters". Australian Minister for Finance, Mathias Cormann, who was born in German-speaking Belgium, used the phrase "economic girlie-man" to describe opposition leader Bill Shorten in 2014. The phrase had previously been used on the comedy program Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell by the fictitious "spokesman for Finance Minister, Darius Horsham", mocking Cormann's accent; since Cormann's use, the phrase has regularly appeared in skits featuring Horsham. Linguistic analysis In an article in the journal American Speech, linguist Edwin Battistella analyzes the development of the expression from ironic mockery of bodybuilding culture to an overt connotation of weakness and a covert connotation of effeminacy. He writes: In all this usage, girly-man is implicitly contrasted with such terms as he-man, macho-man, or manly man. These terms bring