No, this isn’t a “poor word choice”. Winston would never have even suggested that only boys could be strong if that wasn’t where his mindset was.

If he was trying to be motivational to a young boy who appeared disinterested, he should have had ALL the students stand up to be “strong” instead of segregating by sex.

If, instead of segregating the class by sex, he had segregated by race, would that have been acceptable? Would that be just excused as a “poor word choice” if he had all the white students stand up to be “strong” and the black students told to “sit down”?

Perhaps Winston should stick to football and keep his mouth shut. Oh, and it wouldn’t hurt if he quit raping as well.