Instead, we called the veteran bodybuilder and scourge of girly men: JACK LALANNE, who at 91 is old enough to be Ms. Smith's husband.

"My children deserve the right to be with both of their parents," said Mr. McGriff, 40, a chemist, who said his wife had called him "girly man" and had told the children he had an illness.

"Call me a crackpot, you can call me a girly man or a stooge, or you can say my last picture didn't make money," Mr. Beatty said in an interview.

This initially resulted in sparring with the heavily Democratic Assembly and Senate over the state budget, battles which provided his infamous "girly men" comment but also began taking their toll on his approval rating.

Not a girly man among them.

Those girly men wouldn't have lasted a season under the old rules.

"This to me says only women or 'girly men' have to watch their carbs because they have to be thin," said Terry O'Neill, a vice president at the National Organization for Women in Washington.

Reformers were routinely taunted as effeminate - in the manner that conservatives today bandy about terms like "effete," "French-looking," and "girly man."

Never mind what the Austro-Californian dunderhead thinks; a man strong in body and gentle in manner is not a girly man - he's a catch.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, when displeased, reduced his opponents in the Legislature to "girly men."