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lostarchitect

lostarchitect

Brooklyn, NY
January 2004

JUL 16, 2004 05:33 PM

jane magazine doesn't have the article online, but aparrently during an interview with claudine ko for jane, american apparel founder dov charney just whipped it out and jerked off. repeatedly.


Ko writes that during her on and off month-long meetings with Charney, he whipped it out in front of her eight times. Charney rationalizes his behavior to Ko by stating, “’Masturbation in front of women is underrated…It’s much easier on the woman. She gets to watch, it’s a sensual experience that doesn’t involve a man violating a woman, yet once the guy has his release, it’s over and you can talk to the guy.’” Charney suggests that men should be able to “relieve” themselves whenever they find it necessary, as if women shouldn’t expect an intelligent conversation from a man until he’s had the “release,” and he also implies that when a female is actually involved in the sexual act, she can not derive pleasure, that she is instead “violated.” He sounds a lot like Andrew Dworkin there, a feminist writer often despised for her idea that penetration equals violation. Perhaps he has heard of this idea, and perhaps this is why, as his assistant tells it, he “rejects early-90s feminism,” even though her book Intercourse was published in 1987, meaning it was written in the early-80s and it is unclear if either of them has a valid working knowledge of 90s-feminism, which centered primarily on political activism, diversity, and body image issues. This is the only place in the article where I can give kudos to Ko, because this quote nicely demonstrates Charney’s ridiculous mindset.



the above commentary can be found here.

did anyone else read this jane article? a friend of mine and i did and found it disturbing... the guy seems like a total scumbag, and i am reconsidering my previous american apparel fandom.

it should also be noted that all the sg t shirts and such are printed on american apparel products.

LadyMaze

LadyMaze

USA
July 2004

JUL 16, 2004 05:43 PM

Yeah, I read that one. I was just shocked. I kept thinking, "WHY didn't she just LEAVE?" I doubt Jane Pratt would have minded too much if one of her employees abruptly ended an interview with a man who found it to be appropriate to masturbate in front of a woman he just met. Not to sound prudish, or anything. I'm all for sexual behavior between strangers if they are both interested in it...both CONSENTING to it. But personally, I would have been, not just uncomfortable, but offended, in a situation like that. It is one thing to be open about your sexuality, but it is another thing altogether to force it upon people in that manner.

clara

clara

MODERATOR

Baltimore, MD

JUL 16, 2004 06:16 PM

I really hope that's not true, not because I care about the company, but because I hope no human being is actually that fucked up in real life.

I don't really believe in god, but please god, let it be something snopes will debunk any minute now.

Shal

Shal

Los Angeles, CA
October 2002

JUL 16, 2004 06:24 PM

1. It's Andrea Dworkin, not "Andrew." The article's author either didn't know this or is unprofessional enough to not bother proofreading.

2. Read the comments underneath this "article." The third comment down is from someone who actually went out and bought the magazine and read the article.

I bought the magazine for this piece because I was really excited to have a story about a guy masturbating during an interview. I've reread it plenty and, uh...actually, he asked Ko if it was okay to masturbate ("Can I?"). Also, Ko doesn't write up her situations in blow-by-blow (ahem) accounts, so you don't even know what prompted the "show" Charney and co. put on for her. Maybe she was curious. Maybe they'd all been hanging out drinking. You just don't know. She was apparently fine with the masturbating, so what makes you think that her hands were tied in this situation?



This commentor went on to berate the article-writer for coming down on other people's deviations from the norm of "acceptable sexual behavior", when it was obviously okay with the interviewer.

RoseMarie

RoseMarie

SUICIDEGIRL

French Polynesia

JUL 16, 2004 06:29 PM

She met with him 8 times and stayed there while he was doing that? Maybe she liked it.

To each his own. Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, but I would've laughed in his face and then walked out.
Well, now that I think about it, if he was hot, I would've watched, then laughed in his face and walked out.

MissTyrios

misstyrios

NEWSWIRE

Allston, MA

JUL 16, 2004 06:57 PM

I have that magazine with the article in it. It's strange...by the end, she had this sort of Stokholm Syndrome thing going on. The man basically has the status of a God among his employees and it seemed really easy to get caught up in that world, despite the utter bizareness of it. Since I'm not feeling well and thus home on a friday night, I might just dig out the article and type it up here (if that's kosher...since it's not online, perhaps I'm not allowed to do that...yeah, I'm a law student but know next to nothing about intellectual property issues).

Koleeta

Koleeta

Los Angeles, CA
May 2003

JUL 16, 2004 07:01 PM

I read an article about him and the company in the S.F. Chronicle. He also sleeps with his models if that makes a difference.

Should his scumbagness keep us from buying his clothes? This is a test of which values and ethics you find more important: Fair Wages or Sexual Harrassment.

lostarchitect

lostarchitect

Brooklyn, NY
January 2004

JUL 16, 2004 07:56 PM

Shalome said:
1. It's Andrea Dworkin, not "Andrew." The article's author either didn't know this or is unprofessional enough to not bother proofreading.

2. Read the comments underneath this "article." The third comment down is from someone who actually went out and bought the magazine and read the article.

I bought the magazine for this piece because I was really excited to have a story about a guy masturbating during an interview. I've reread it plenty and, uh...actually, he asked Ko if it was okay to masturbate ("Can I?"). Also, Ko doesn't write up her situations in blow-by-blow (ahem) accounts, so you don't even know what prompted the "show" Charney and co. put on for her. Maybe she was curious. Maybe they'd all been hanging out drinking. You just don't know. She was apparently fine with the masturbating, so what makes you think that her hands were tied in this situation?



This commentor went on to berate the article-writer for coming down on other people's deviations from the norm of "acceptable sexual behavior", when it was obviously okay with the interviewer.




shalome-

that seems to be a typo. note that "w" is very close to "a".

in any event I read the article and it disturbed me. as far the the commentary, that's not really the point. i included it because i couldn't find the actual article and i don't have the magazine to quote; i don't generally buy jane and the one i read belonged to a friend.

there's a lot of implication in the article about his hiring on girls so he can sleep with them as well, and the jerking off is just the most sensational of the things it includes.

i was asking who else had read it, because i wanted to get their feelings on it to see if i was the only one creeped out by it. i am not.

Perversia

Perversia

United Kingdom
November 2003

AUG 31, 2004 02:33 AM

Weird. surreal

MrZablowdowski

MrZablowdowski

Edmonton, AB
December 2002

AUG 31, 2004 02:56 AM

Is the turtle neck on the comeback?

semyaza

semyaza

Wildomar, CA
December 2004

JUL 09, 2005 07:54 AM

Hey..she stuck around and watched. No one forced her to stay. Yeah, he may be a scumbag, but everyone is entitled to their kinks and deviant behaviors....just so long as it's consentual....which this was.

Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn

SUICIDEGIRL

Indiana, USA

JUL 09, 2005 10:33 AM

Shalome said:
1. It's Andrea Dworkin, not "Andrew." The article's author either didn't know this or is unprofessional enough to not bother proofreading.



I'm sure that the author meant he sounded like the male version of Andrea, hence saying Andrew.

anonymouse

anonymouse

Miami Beach, FL
OLD SKOOL

JUL 09, 2005 10:37 AM

Um, DUH. Dov Charney is a total creepazoid. I always feel uncomfortable wearing an AA shirt, because you can never be too sure if it has come into contact with Dov's bodily fluids.

He's being sued for sexual harrassment. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. He doesn't just masturbate in front of journalists, and he makes all sorts of crude comments. Allegedly. As forward-thinking as AA may be, they're backwards when it comes to women in the workplace. Or at least Dov is. But, you know, they let him do that shit. It's not a secret, and...

In his marketing, Charney has been adept at weaving his libertarian sexual attitude with his progressive labor practices. But it's another matter to make that attitude a bedrock principle of the workplace. In their sexual harassment suits, two of the women accuse Charney of exposing himself to them. One claims he invited her to masturbate with him and that he ran business meetings at his Los Angeles home wearing close to nothing. Another says he asked her to hire young women with whom he could have sex, Asians preferred. All describe him using foul language in their presence, much of it demeaning to women. Says Keith A. Fink, an attorney for one of the women suing: "The work environment there makes Animal House look like choir practice."



American Apparel needs some sensitivity training. You can't make the workplace hostile just because girls have titties.

Oh, and Gawker has some info on Dov. They may run AA ads, but that doesn't stop them from making fun of them and openly cringing at Dov's hiddy bod. Multiple times.

And Jewlicious hosts that article mentioned in the first post. I originally learned of Charney's inappropriate behavior from a friend (who is an Asian Australian, incredibly gorgeous, and apparently his type) who worked at AA's flagship store and then moved up the hierarchy only to be subjected to salacious comments. Allegedly. And then Gawker reminded me when they linked to that Jane article in this post. Thanks, Gawker. But not for permanently searing my retinas with those pics of Dov Charney's bare ass and his... stuff. In pink y-fronts. I don't need to see that. Ever. And people don't want to watch you jerk it, Dov. Put it away. In your pants. In fact, don't even wear a zipper-fly. Wear button-fly pants. With a chastity belt underneath. Thanks.

[Edited on Jul 09, 2005 by anonymouse]

cthav

cthav

USA
August 2004

JUL 09, 2005 07:01 PM

I am just waiting for someone to expose themselves to this thread.