Quote of the Day: “What’s a pretty girl like you doing reading those?”

I guess someone didn’t get the memo about the existence of female reporters?

Ed Hartzog, a Community Board 8 member who once worked for Anthony Weiner’s campaign, has not widely publicized his candidacy, but he has raised nearly $8,000 since throwing his hat into the ring about a month ago, according to documents listed on the New York City Campaign Finance Board website. About half the donations have come from out of state, the documents show.

When a DNAinfo.com New York reporter asked about the campaign finance documents recently, Hartzog replied, “What’s a pretty girl like you doing reading those?”

Asked about his comments later, he added, “I hope for goodness sake that my flippant comment isn’t going to be part of the story. I was just sort of being something. I hope you didn’t take offense by that. I didn’t mean to be offensive.”

LOL. “I was just sort of being something.” Um, I believe “sexist” is the word you’re searching for there, buddy.

It’s not that surprising that a politician would make this comment, but it is a little bit surprising he’d think it wouldn’t make it into the story. Journalists–even those “pretty girl” ones–tend to jump all over a ridiculous statement like that.

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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