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25th Sep 2023

Hercules star Kevin Sorbo complains Hollywood men aren’t ‘manly’ anymore

Charlie Herbert

Sorbo wants to see more men that ‘we’d want our sons to emulate and daughters to date’

Kevin Sorbo has voiced his anger over Hollywood apparently not having anymore “manly” men.

The actor, best known for starring as Hercules in the 90s TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, claimed in an op-ed for Fox News that there is an “anti-men” ethos in the American films.

Sorbo said this had been permeating through over the last two decades, and bizarrely reckoned this all started with… Elastigirl in The Incredibles.

Quoting her line “Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don’t think so”, Sorbo argues that “Helen Parr’s popular feminist maxim has come to define Hollywood’s endemic anti-man ethos.”

He wrote: “Everywhere we look, bold, confident, self-assured females upstage passive men who recede quietly into the background. Into the basement. Into the past.

“Fathers, in particular, have become the butt of every woke Hollywood jab, the bumbling, useless idiots who contribute nothing to their families or communities, but sacrifice themselves as objects of ridicule.”

The 65-year-old went on to say that he wants to see more men in American films that “we’d want our sons to emulate and daughters to date.”

Predictably, Sober turns his attention to the red carpet fashion choices of some of Hollywood’s biggest names, writing: “Society today seriously misunderstands masculinity.

“On the one hand, we love to normalize androgynous, Billy Porter-type men who sport skirts and poofy dresses.”

“GQ’s 2019 best-dressed man, Timothée Chalamet, for example, often wears clothes that, well… let’s just say your grandfather wouldn’t have been caught dead dressed like Chalamet.”

Kevin Sorbo is no fan of the fashion choices of the likes of Timothée Chalamet, pictured (Getty)

Probably a bit questionable to be going to your grandad for fashion advice in the first place really.

So what does Sorbo put this so-called lack of masculinity in Hollywood down to? Well, he blames “alcohol, drugs, video games, porn and other entertainment.”

Unsurprisingly, he gives no explanation as to why these broad things are to blame.

He goes on to say that “boys, especially, need heroes,” claiming that this is why “storytelling has been an essential part of culture throughout history, particularly through the medium of filmmaking in this generation.”

And, seemingly forgetting the last 15 years of countless male-led superhero movies, Sorbo finishes by saying: “It’s time for the world’s entertainment capital to reintroduce good men: men who love their wives and children, protect them, fight for what’s right, and speak up for the powerless.”

I’m still struggling to work out what any of this has to do with video games and alcohol.

Following the op-ed being published, many have slammed Sorbo for his views, pointing out that the masculinity of previous decades that he dreams of had plenty of issues.

One person wrote: “Those tough guy movie characters that swaggered hit women, or reveled in gratuitous violence were an obnoxious aspirational macho persona.”

Another said: “Ok, so kind, caring, intelligent men frighten y’all?! I know of a whole lot of men who have those gentler qualities because they are man enough to!”

Related links:

Man telling his girlfriend she should take his surname after they marry divides opinion

Michael Caine, 90, says ‘younger wives’ are one of three ‘secrets’ to a long life

Harry Styles hits back at critics who told him to be more ‘manly’