The Change We Need: Fire Jon Favreau
Yesterday, a shocking picture of Jon Favreau, Barack Obama’s Director of Speechwriting, surfaced on Facebook. In the picture in question, Favreau is groping the breast of a cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton. Ladies and Gentlemen, Exhibit A:
Surely, Senator Clinton, who bravely and stalwartly addressed issues of sexism throughout her campaign (the infamous “Iron My Shirt” heckler comes to mind first), is outraged that an employee of Barack Obama would degrade and disgrace her body and image?! Unfortunately, this is not the case. Philippe Reines, a Clinton aide, said, “Senator Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon’s obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application.”
Pardon my language, but WHAT THE HELL? (And that’s not even the harshest of language I would prefer to use . . .) Sexist and boorish behavior should be not rewarded with a job, it should be punished with a pink slip and a spot in the unemployment line.
This picture is a blatant act of sexual harassment, especially since both Senator Clinton and Favreau will be essentially working together and for the same employer. Any woman would be horrified, horrified! if any of her colleagues violated her body, either in person or in likeness. It is evident from this picture that Favreau has no respect for Senator Clinton, or for women.
Favreau has apologized for the incident, but this does not absolve him from his actions. Barack Obama should fire Favreau without a moment’s delay! If Obama wants change in America, one place he can start is with women’s rights, especially with regard to how we are treated in the workplace. Equal pay for equal work is exceedingly important, but being shown equal respect is key, too.
As Director of Speechwriting, Favreau will play a key role in the Obama Administration. How will we ever believe that Obama is as passionate about women’s rights as he claims he is if Favreau is the one who writes the very words that come out of Obama’s mouth?
I know what some of you are probably thinking: Two wars! Crashing economy! Genocide! Other “more important” things! Who cares? I care. It’s not that women’s rights are more important than any other issue facing our country or the world, it’s that women’s rights are equally important as any other issue facing our country or the world. As Barack Obama himself has said, “A President has to be able to do more than one thing at a time.”
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I just found out about this story. What has happened since? Has Barack Obama made a statement?
As far as I can tell, not much. Obama has not made a statement, which I find very disappointing, especially since one of the many platforms he ran on was the rights and fair treatment of women, especially in the workplace. On his website, he discussed at length the issues of rape and violence against women. Yet, if he cannot be so horrified at this picture depicting violence against a woman (groping her breast, pulling her hair, pouring beer down her throat, all the while kissing her cheek– how charming!), then he is clearly of no use to women in this country.
The irony in all of this, of course, is that supporters of Barack Obama become incensed–and rightly so–when racist attacks are made against him, especially when the cardboard silhouette of a black man is found hanging from a tree. It’s rather unfortunate that this same courtesy is not extended to women. Instead, we are expected to turn our cheeks the other way.
I dont think this a “blatant act of sexual harassment at all.” Hillary is the judge of what offends her, not the author of this blog. She is just taking a harmless joke in stride.
Would you have written the same thing if the speechwriter was grabbing the genitalia of a cardboard obama cutout? i think not
This is indeed a blatant act of sexual harassment. I do not know how you would react in this situation, but if one my colleagues grabbed my body, either in person or in effigy, I would strongly object. And if he or she did it in the same instance as another person pulling my hair and pouring a beer down my throat–again, either in person, or in effigy–my objection would be all the greater.
I do not believe that Hillary is taking this situation in stride, despite what her spokesman may have you think. How does she go from condemning “Iron my shirt!” and what she and others perceived as the media’s sexist coverage of her campaign to chuckling, via a spokesman, over a picture depicting the violation of her body? Consider this: she is not in the position right now to condemn the actions of another member of the Obama administration. Not only is she dependent on Obama supporters to decrease her debt, but she is also dependent on Obama himself to give her a job which is quite possibly the closest she may ever come to the presidency. Now, I like to think of Hillary Clinton as an incredibly strong, intelligent, independent-thinking person, but, after much deliberation, I have serious concerns she might be pretending to brush the situation off to avoid the rocking the boat.
As to the matter of whether or not I would have written the same thing if the speechwriter was grabbing the genitalia of a cardboard cutout of Obama: I consider myself a progressive person and therefore do not believe that only men can sexually harass only women. Rather, I believe that women can sexually harass men, women can sexually harass women, and men can sexually harass men. I probably would have written such a blog post a bit differently; equal pay for equal work and other issues of women’s rights would probably be irrelevant if this hypothetical situation were to occur.