# Why are Alan Alda and Phil Donahue the archetypical "wimpy men?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 7, 2009, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-alan-alda-and-phil-donahue-the-archetypical-wimpy-men/520302 "2009-12-07T07:09:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-alan-alda-and-phil-donahue-the-archetypical-wimpy-men/520302/41 "2009-12-09T11:38:01Z")
Well, I’m with you on how wonderful Alan Alda is, **Zoe** , but just because Alan was (is) all kinds of awesome, sexy, funny, smart, warm-hearted, talented, forward-thinking and so on, doesn’t mean old-fashioned women and insecure chauvinists didn’t call him a wimp. Sticking up for women and being ‘sensitive’ certainly made him the butt of many derisive jokes, more’s the pity. Ditto Phil Donahue. I blame Marlo Thomas. Clearly she’s the connection that poisons the well! (Alda took part in “Free to Be You and Me” with Thomas, and of course Phil’s married to her.) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-alan-alda-and-phil-donahue-the-archetypical-wimpy-men/520302/42 "2009-12-09T14:40:36Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Wait a second. You’re denying historic fact because you don’t want it to be true? > > How wimpy. 😛 > > But of course it’s true. Alda and Donahue and many others were considered “wimpy.” > > I love [Alda’s response](http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/17/movies/l-wimpery-wimps-and-adult-films-306388.html) to a [Janet Maslin review](http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/03/movies/film-view-wimps-sweeten-the-screen.html). Note that this takes place back in 1988. Yes, they were considered wimpy by a certain segment of society. What I’m challenging is the idea that that segment represents society as a whole. Or do cavemen (and women) just have louder voices that the rest of us? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-alan-alda-and-phil-donahue-the-archetypical-wimpy-men/520302/43 "2009-12-09T23:03:56Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > What I’m challenging is the idea that that segment represents society as a whole. That’s pointless. _Nothing_ represents society as a whole, beyond some uselessly generalized statements like “all citizens are human” or “all citizens breathe oxygen”. What you’re describing is a tactic to ignore an opinion that disagrees with your own because only some fraction of society holds it. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-alan-alda-and-phil-donahue-the-archetypical-wimpy-men/520302/44 "2009-12-10T01:16:10Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > So you have no respect for Cheney, Bush, Wolfowitz, and a pile of neocons who started the wars? Ahh you’re being clever. In reply to your statement: “No, not really, but more respect for them than for our Nobel Prize winning president.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-alan-alda-and-phil-donahue-the-archetypical-wimpy-men/520302.md?page=2)