At the top of Friday’s (July 17) episode of The View, the cohosts reacted to the news that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a new initiative to check male military members’ testosterone levels and provide them gender affirming hormone care if the test results indicate.
The segment started with the panelists reviewing footage of Hegseth’s announcement, in which he claimed, “It’s well-established science that as we age, testosterone levels often naturally drop. This initiative, it’s not about artificial enhancement; it’s about restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity, and ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight.” They also reviewed footage of Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s fiery reaction, in which she said, “Do you really want the government getting into your business, taking your testosterone levels, and determining whether or not you have enough testosterone? Are you male enough to be in Congress?”
“Whoa! That girl’s got some testosterone,” Joy Behar said in reaction to the latter clip.
Then, Alyssa Farah Griffin took the first shot at Hegseth by saying, “So, it is a fact of science that no man who is confident in their own testosterone levels worries about other men’s testosterone levels. Look it up. It’s in the science textbook. I have literally never heard my husband be like, ‘I’m worried about our neighbor and his T levels.’” She then guessed where the subject was coming from in the first place, saying, “This, I really think, is catering to sort of a quarter of the internet within the ‘Manosphere,’ where this is a constant source of discussion. It’s sort of the Andrew Tate idea of masculinity: ‘If I look in the mirror and my muscles are really big, I’m really masculine.’ That’s so detached from the reality of the U.S. military.”
When Griffin then mentioned a friend of hers who’s a Navy SEAL but is smaller than her husband, Sara Haines joked, “How are his T levels?”
Haines then wondered aloud, “What are they doing next? Measuring penis size? This feels like the manosphere is in charge of the military. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
She also argued that testosterone level increases can have disastrous results, pointing to the footage of a man being attacked and launched eight feet in the air by a Yellowstone bison during mating season.
Ana Navarro, who said she lives in “the international capital of testosterone replacement treatment,” Miami, took a more serious tone on the matter, warning that there could be deleterious health consequences to taking testosterone treatment, and Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed. “When I was going through IVF, I was taking estrogen and a number of different supplements that you have to, for that process, and you should never do that without deep consultation with the doctor,” she said.
Navarro then pointed out that Hegseth’s attention to the matter is “a little crazy.” “We’re in the middle of a war that none of us know when and how it will end. We all desperately want it to end. And in the middle of this war, you’ve got the secretary of defense focused on who’s chubby in the military, the facial hair, who’s got a beard in the military, and now testosterone levels. Why don’t you focus on getting the hell out of Iran?”
The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC