By David Futrelle
Now that we’re all talking about Michael Bloomberg’s long history of racism, might I take a moment to remind you that the billionaire presidential hopeful also has an equally long and egregious history of misogynistic remarks — which run the gamut from cringeworthy boasts about his sex life to dopey sexist jokes to crude sexual remarks to female staffers. He also (allegedly) gets really mad when women working for him get pregnant.
Let’s run down some of his greatest hits, as alleged by people who were there to hear them. (For what it’s worth, Bloomberg denies he said most of them.)
“If you looked like that, I’d do you in a second.”
One of many sexist remarks Trump allegedly said to former Bloomberg sales rep Sekiko Sakai Garrison, in this case while pointing to a woman he thought looked attractive. In a lawsuit she filed against Bloomberg in 1997, Garrison accused Bloomberg of a long list of similarly crude remarks — allegedly telling her to “kill it” when she informed him she was pregnant, asking her if her fiance was “dumb and blind” after noticing her engagement ring, and asking if she gave her boyfriend good blow jobs.
“If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they’d go to the library instead of to Bloomingdale’s.”
One of many Bloomberg quips that were collected together by his staff in a book they called The Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg,.
“I know for a fact that any self-respecting woman who walks past a construction site and doesn’t get a whistle will turn around and walk past again and again until she does get one.”
Another quip from The Portable Bloomberg.
“Let me put it this way: I am a single, straight billionaire in Manhattan. What do you think? It’s a wet dream.”
Bloomberg, who regularly boasted about his sex life, allegedly said this to a reporter back in the 2000s.
“Look at the ass on her!”
Bloomberg to a reporter after pointing out a woman at a party..
“Nice tits!”
Something Bloomberg allegedly said quite routinely about women in his general vicinity, according to one former top aide.
It’s probably no coincidence that Bloomberg and his organizations have been sued 40 times for sexual discrimination and sexual harassment, huh?
For more on Bloomberg’s misogyny, see these articles in Gawker, The Atlantic, and GQ, from which I drew these various quotes.
Send tips to dfutrelle at gmail dot com.
We Hunted the Mammoth relies entirely on readers like you for its survival. If you appreciate our work, please send a few bucks our way! Thanks!
@WWTH
That would make sense, though it seems that lots of non-construction workers find plenty of ways to harass women as well.
Male politcians of a certain age and creepy-to-almost-creepy sexism go together like peas and carrots. Political party affiliation doesn’t seem to matter, either, imo.
We are a PREDATOR society. Predatory behavior is taught from birth, particularly to males. Society rewards and dismisses successful predation. Consequences for UNsuccessful predation depend on the relative status of predator and prey
It seems a shame to refer to it as cat calling. In my experience, when cats shout at you it’s usually about food.
Bloombergs politics are about aesthetic and not about anything to actually help people. I would say his politics are very similar to Trumps.
Bloomberg is an oppressor to marginalized people he can’t be an savior to us. And also i see a threat to democracy in him. Him buying his candacy and being able to spend hundreds of millions on ads shows how rigged the whole system is.
I am a Bernie supporter because i am a multiple marginalized person and liveable wage, affordable housing and medicare are so much more important to me than having someone who shares an marginalized identity but whose policies will not benefit the majority of this group. I also think diversity and representation matters and are very important but the way identity politics are used against any progressive economic politics is cynical to me. Class intersects so heavily with every other marginalized identity. Being poor means struggling to survive all the time, it’s cruel. Also i have seen many women who had to stay in abusive relationships because they don’t have the money to leave. This is the reason why progressive economic policies are such an important part of feminism for me.
Also there is a great article from one women who was part in coining the term identity politics.
Imho, whenever I’ve been catcalled by construction workers, they were in a group and doing it to show off for each other. It’s performative macho. What was that phrase, in patriarchy, women aren’t the other team, women are the ball? I was just an object to hoot at and high- five each other over, might as well have been a car or a motorcycle.
The private, personal harassment I’ve gotten from rich boss types was much scarier.
@Moggie:
Non-neutered male cats can get pretty noisy when it’s about sex.
I don’t think there’s anything in particular about construction workers personally.
With one exception I can’t think of another common situation other than construction workers where you have an all male group at a vantage point where they can see women walking by and be heard by them, but are at the same time securely physically separated from the rest of the world in their own little bubble so they can’t be reached(construction sites being closed to the public). The other situation is a group of men in a car driving past, which is the other situation where cat calling commonly occurs.
I suspect other commentators are right when they say that it is principally a performance for the benefit of the others in the group, and a way of establishing group commonality and identity, rather than anything in particular about the women concerned (not that this either excuses it or is any comfort to the victims); groups of men seem to do this when they feel secure enough in their own little territory to do so.
I don’t understand the centrists’ point of view of “electability”. How does it make sense to conform as closely as possible to your opposition’s platform and policies? All the people who are happy with those policies already have a candidate that represents them, and aren’t likely to change their vote to a “diet” version. And the people who oppose those policies won’t be highly motivated to vote for someone who is nearly indistinguishable from the thing they already don’t like. It’s a losing gambit from both sides of the spectrum.
Oops it seems like the link didn’t show up
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/10/identity-politics-bernie-sanders-endorsement?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true
@Catalpa: “Electability” has always been a myth. “Electable” people rarely get elected. Otherwise the US would have had a president Biden or a president Romney at some point during the past couple decades, for example. Election favors the standouts, to a point – there is such a thing as too unelectable, otherwise Marianne Williamson would be a serious candidate. But it’s a very persistent myth.
@Catalpa
It seems to be mainly a way for centrists to avoid having a further from the center candidate that they don’t like. It has been repeatedly shown that it doesn’t actually work.
There also seems to be a racial/gender component, seeing as it seems this is most often used against women or PoC by claiming they’re not electable. It seems “electable” very often translates to “old white man,” so that’s another way for racist and sexist folks to avoid having a female or PoC candidate.
Wow, and it’s actually documented even. Why is this creep viewed as “electable” again? I may not like Biden, but AFAIK he hasn’t shown himself to be a bigoted creep.
Wonder if he’ll do a hat trick of bigotry.
@Paireon
Probably because he’s an old rich white guy who’s similar to Trump, so centrists think he could be elected.
I do know that Biden kissed a few women without consent. That is much of my problem with Biden. The other part is that he doesn’t seem progressive in any way, and seems similar to Republicans in that he wants to return to a past ideal that wasn’t actually ideal. In addition, his mind seems to possibly be going with old age, as he’s made several notable slips in debates and much of the time seems confused. And he insults fans and actually tells people not to vote for him.
Come to think of it, there’s a lot wrong with Biden. Still better than Trump or Bloomberg, but that’s a low bar.
I remember reading an article a while back with him nearly getting punched by a secret service member because he started harassing and coming on to his wife. Or skinny dipping when women where scheduled to act as security. Not sure how true that is though.
I personally haven’t been catcalled by construction workers, and you see a lot of them in Montreal.
Mind you, I’m pretty ordinary looking. But I have been harassed by young guys driving cars, when I was walking or on my bike, which I guess is also a cliche. (Not to impugn teenage male drivers in general, this was just my experience.)
For the Dem nominee, I was rooting for Warren and my brother for Sanders, so he was smug. Not that I have any vote, of course, but I should tell him Sanders would be my second choice. I dunno why I didn’t before. I think my mind’s still running automatically-oppose-sibling.exe at age 31. Sad!
Well as for Canada: our laws on the subject are at least getting stronger and prosecutions getting harsher. Heck a new law that was passed somewhat recently (roughly two years back I think) allows victims to sue for reparations.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/law-intimate-images-sharing-revenge-porn-newfoundland-1.4621141