Donna Karan Says Weinstein's Sexual Harassment Victims Were 'Asking For It'

Nick Kangadis | October 10, 2017
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On the red carpet at the CineFashion Film Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, fashion designer Donna Karan defended disgraced movie producer and now former studio executive Harvey Weinstein, suggesting women are "asking for" sexual harassment by dressing provocatively.

Weinstein has been in hot water since a damning New York Times article exposed years' worth of sexual harassment claims against him.

In her interview, Karan had the gall to blame the victims of Weinstein’s sexual advances by questioning whether the women were “asking for it," telling the Daily Mail:

I think we have to look at ourselves. Obviously, the treatment of women all over the world is something that has always had to be identified. Certainly in the country of Haiti where I work, in Africa, in the developing world, it's been a hard time for women. 

To see it here in our own country is very difficult, but I also think how do we display ourselves? How do we present ourselves as women? What are we asking? Are we asking for it by presenting all the sensuality and all the sexuality?

The fashion designer also said that she finds the allegations against Weinstein hard to believe because she knows Weinstein and his wife, Georgina Chapman, and that they are “wonderful people.”

Except that her logic is extremely flawed. Karan’s a fashion designer. She clothes women in sexy attire all the time. By her own logic, isn’t she culpable by promoting “all the sensuality and all the sexuality” for Weinstein to put his grubby little hands on?

Karan has since apologized for her statements, claiming her comments were "taken out of context" and saying:

My statements were taken out of context and do not represent how I feel about the current situation concerning Harvey Weinstein. I believe that sexual harassment is NOT acceptable and this is an issue that MUST be addressed once and for all regardless of the individual[...]I am truly sorry to anyone that I offended and everyone that has ever been a victim.

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