New York Magazine publishes a revelation about Michael Bloomberg today:
Mayor Bloomberg
was focused on bums rather than guns at a recent Christmas party, where
he ignored a compliment about his work on gun control to admire the
“ass” of a female guest.
In a New York Magazine profile
about Christine Quinn, the City Council Speaker and candidate for
mayor, the author recalled being introduced to Bloomberg at what he
described as “a Christmas party for the rich” on the Upper East Side.
“My friend and I followed the host over, shook Bloomberg’s hand, and my
friend thanked him for his position on gun control,” the author writes.
“Without even acknowledging the comment, Bloomberg gestured toward a
woman in a very tight floor-length gown standing nearby and said, ‘Look
at the ass on her.’”
This is not the first time Bloomberg has been accused of harassment.
In fact, he has a rich history of both harassment and discrimination claims made against both him individually and his company, Bloomberg LP.
Bloomberg has settled these sexual harassment and discrimination suits in the past and gotten non-disclosure agreements from the alleged victims, so we don't know many of the details of the claims made against him.
In one case, Bloomberg is alleged to have twice suggested to a pregnant employee that she "kill it" (her baby) if she wanted to remain with the company.
In another case, Bloomberg was alleged to have protected a senior male Bloomberg LP employee who was accused of raping a female employee of the company, going so far as to say that the female employee was simply trying to extort money from the male Bloomberg LP manager and having other Bloomberg LP employees try and dig up dirt on the female employee in order to discredit her.
The depositions in those cases described the atmosphere and environment Bloomberg created at his company:
The Olszewski and Garrison cases combine to depict a sales floor where, as two men who formerly worked there, Jim Feingold and Rowland Hunt,
put it in court documents, women "wore very short skirts, racy,
unbusinesslike." Sexual comments and body-shot drinking games at company
parties were reportedly commonplace, as were incidents like the office
display of a brochure for sex toys, a female blow-up sex doll, and
rubber breasts that squirted liquid from the nipples.
The Olszewski and Garrison cases are old news and Bloomberg long ago put those behind him with settlements and non-disclosure agreements.
But I revisit these cases because they give you a glimpse into the pathology and misogyny of Michael Bloomberg.
This is a man who does not respect women, seems to have a need to sexually objectify them publicly like the frat boy he once was (I will leave where that need comes from to the Freudian analysts among you), and seems to have a need to publicly humiliate women.
The New York Magazine article goes on to describe how Bloomberg treats Christine Quinn with thinly veiled disdain and misogyny:
According to the article, Bloomberg also has strong opinions about
Quinn’s appearance – turning up his nose when she wears flats or waits
too long before coloring her hair.
“The mayor has no use for flat shoes,” Quinn told the reporter.
“I was at a parade with him once and he said, ‘What are those?’ and I
said, ‘They’re comfortable,’ and he said, ‘I never want to hear those
words out of your mouth again,’” she recalled. “He likes me in high
heels.”
“Another big thing with the mayor, when I am rooting … like, the couple
of days a week before I need to get my hair colored, he’ll say, ‘Do you
pay a lot to make your hair be two colors? Because now it’s three with
the gray,’” Quinn continued. “And I’m like, ‘Did you wake up being this
big of an a--hole? Or did it take, like, all day to ramp up to it to be
able to insult me like that?’”
Is it any wonder that the kind of man who set up the frat boy atmosphere of Bloomberg LP, publicly ogles women at UES parties, and tells a political colleague she needs to always wear high heels has such disdain for teachers?
While there are more men working these days as teachers, teaching is still seen as "women's work" and there are still many more women working as teachers in NYC than there are men.
While some of the hostility and vindictiveness Bloomberg exhibits toward teachers is class-based - he despises working people, he despises union members, he despises government employees - much of it comes from the misogyny, anger and fear he has for women.
This is a man with a documented track record of harassment, discriminatory practices and boorish behavior.
Today at school we were forced to sit through a one hour discrimination workshop from the DOE.
While there's nothing wrong with informing employees of their rights and their responsibilities when it comes to harassment and discrimination, it seems that the Big Boss Man of the City of New York and Bloomberg LP is the guy most in need of this workshop and the lessons contained therein.
He won't get that, of course - rich, arrogant, misogynistic elites like himself rarely get held accountable for their behavior.
But the New York Magazine article today reminds me again of two things:
1) Bloomberg's an ass
2) The hostility and tyranny that Bloomberg shows toward teachers is much more deeply rooted in misogyny than education policy
