The ladies of The View spent last Friday discussing workplace harassment. This was prompted by an essay Joy Behar recently penned called #MeToo: The Early Years, where she described the tools (or lack thereof) that were available to women in the 60s to combat harassment from coworkers. During the conversation, Sunny Hostin shared some of the backstory that led to her later decision to have a breast reduction in 2022: early in her law career, Sunny used to bind her breasts before job interviews because her male colleagues couldn’t keep their eyes directed up on her face.
“When I was coming up at the Justice Department and when I was coming up in law firms,” Hostin said. “We had options [to report harassment], but I wouldn’t dare use them so as not to be blackballed out of a position because the structure, it was a patriarchy.”
Hostin also described how men would treat her during job interviews, and how she would “bind” her breasts during meetings with prospective employers.
“As everyone knows I had plastic surgery, I had a breast reduction. I recall so many interviews as a young lawyer where men never looked at my face,” she said. “They just looked straight at my chest. And I started binding my breasts so that I could get a job.”
Hostin spoke to PEOPLE last year about her breast reduction and life, as well as her liposuction, which she underwent in the summer of 2022. As she said at the time, she wants to start a conversation about those types of procedures in an effort to destigmatize them, calling them a “health decision and a self-care decision.”
“I thought I would feel shame, like, ‘Oh my God, I’m doing plastic surgery like all these crazy celebrities.’ But I don’t feel shame at all,” she said at the time. “And I hope sharing my story will help more people. If they’re feeling so body-conscious, the way I was — they can do what they need to do to feel better.”
Friday’s conversation came as Behar’s essay “#MeToo: The Early Years” was published on Air Mail. In the essay she detailed her experiences with workplace harassment as a teacher in the ‘60s.
The essay marks the first chapter in Behar’s upcoming memoir, which PEOPLE confirmed in November. Behar told her co-hosts on The View Friday that in the ‘60s, women had to “handle it ourselves” when it came to workplace harassment. “We didn’t have HR or pepper spray even,” she said on the show.
“We could either yell at them or gouge their eyes out with keys. And this behavior then was shrugged off as ‘boys being boys.’”
In the essay, Behar recounted a moment where the chairman of her English department told her he “could’ve f–ked you on the blackboard.”
“I was torn. On the one hand, I was revulsed. On the other hand, I was a self-supporting, single woman with no trust fund waiting for me, and the chairman of the English department liked my lesson,” Behar wrote. “My mind raced.”
Joy and Sunny were each in impossible positions. And for both of them, the pragmatic way out was to adjust themselves in order to counter — and accommodate — the bad behavior of their coworkers. But to decide that the best action would be to bind your own breasts? Sunny literally and figuratively could not breathe. I have the pleasure of working with women in Joy and Sunny’s generations. A few years ago we all had to take an online harassment course, and my heart had such a pang when one of these women emerged from the training to say, “I didn’t realize you could say no.” To be fair, she was saying it half in earnest and half with a wink. But it really stuck with me, because even if it was said with some humor, that was probably to mask hurt. If only there were a timely blockbuster that could articulate the high wire act it takes to be a woman, and all in a bright, fun package so as not to make us too depressed. That would get the message across in a way that would be undeniable, surely.
Photos credit: Christian Lora / Image Press Agency / Avalon, Getty Images for Netflix
My rule in the work place has always been ‘no vee neck shirts or sweaters’. Don’t give them a reason (not that they need one) to look or ‘help’ them look down my shirt. It’s ridiculous, but at the same time, I remind myself of what the late great Robin Williams said in one of his stand up routines: Men can’t think with both heads at once.
I totally get Sunny. I had a breast reduction at 40 after years of insecurity and hunching myself over to minimise my breasts. They were disproportionate to my sporty body and I was constantly trying to hide them.
BTW breast reduction is not considered plastic surgery where I live (Canada) and mine was completely covered by our medical system. It is up to Dr discretion (it used to be volume removed based wrt whether it was covered or not) to evaluate whether it was causing harm (mental or physical). BEST DECISION EVER. I will always remember going back in for post-op checkin and telling my surgeon the biggest difference is I just don’t think about it anymore. I can live my life free.
Adult men have been hitting on me since I was 11 and had breast. It was completely normal. So when I started working in the late 90s. I was unfazed by men behavior at work. When me too happened I had a lot of thoughts. How not just men thought it was normal and acceptable behavior but how women were brainwashed (for lack of better words) to think that sht was acceptable too. Uggg. I was so use to it as a child that of course at work would be the same. It was my job to learn how to deal with them…
It’s too bad she had to have surgery, to be free of unwanted male attention. Just illustrates how much we need to have women in positions of power.