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Schwarzenegger degrades women { September 5 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3J4THX3UO1RHUCRBAEOCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3395739http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3J4THX3UO1RHUCRBAEOCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3395739
Protest Says Schwarzenegger Degrades Women
Fri September 5, 2003 12:40 PM ET
By Adam Tanner
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Does movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger have a problem with women?
Although Schwarzenegger's run for governor of California has excited many voters tired of conventional politicians such Gov. Gray Davis, some are complaining the actor's past statements and behavior toward women cast doubts about his character.
In the latest distraction from Schwarzenegger's official message of a "people's revolution" to retake Sacramento in an Oct. 7 recall vote, a group of women announced they would picket the former bodybuilder's campaign headquarters on Friday to protest what they call his misogynist views and crude behavior toward women.
"I am not concerned about what he does that is consensual," said Karen Pomer, the founder of the Rainbow Sisters Project, a group of rape victims. "But women who do not want to be touched who he touches -- the reports of him harassing women -- they are of great concern.
"It's degrading to women."
Schwarzenegger is married to television journalist Maria Shriver, a member of the nation's most prominent Democratic family as niece of the late President John F. Kennedy. They have four children.
Some published articles have portrayed Schwarzenegger as touching women's bottoms and breasts without their consent.
In a recent interview with Reuters, his best friend Franco Columbu confirmed that such incidents have taken place, such as when he touched the breasts of a British television presenter.
"Like the girl in London when he was lying on the bed, the couch or whatever it was, and touching her and taking a picture," Columbu said. "That stuff is Arnold, he does that. He says, 'You have nice big legs' and touch her, fine. But nothing harmful or telling somebody 'Leave, I am going to be with her alone."'
"They love it of course. I've never seen him do something that was, like, out of place. Talking, yes, he would say something like 'Oh, you look so sexy,' 'Oh, ya, you have a nice ass,' but that's it."
TRUE LIES?
Schwarzenegger has raised eyebrows in recent days with the recirculation of a 1977 interview in which he discusses participating in group sex. He initially dodged questions on the topic, then on Wednesday he said he had made up the story.
"The '70s was a totally different era," he told MSNBC. "We tried to promote 'Pumping Iron,' so you say outrageous things to make headlines in the newspaper."
Over his long career in bodybuilding and then film, Schwarzenegger has often discussed women and sex in a way that some voters may find objectionable.
"Girls became sex objects. I saw the other bodybuilders using them in this way and I thought it was all right," he wrote in his 1977 memoir "Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder."
"Whatever I thought might hold me back, I avoided. I crossed girls off my list -- except as tools for my sexual needs."
"My attitude about all that has changed radically. I used to feel that women were here for one reason. Sex was simply another kind of exercise, another body function."
In the 1974 book "Pumping Iron" Schwarzenegger said: "If I see a girl with big tits, I'm going to stare and stare. And I'm going to think in my mind what I am going to do with her if I would have her."
Asked for comment on Thursday, Schwarzenegger's campaign arranged a telephone interview with Bonnie Reiss, a family friend who is CEO of the actor's Inner-City Games Foundation.
"In 24 years of friendship and in 10 years of working on his children's foundation with him, never, ever, ever has he treated me or any other woman I have ever seen when I am in his presence with anything but respect and regard," he said. "Is that a misogynist? I think it is the opposite."
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