Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. (Jack Gruber, USA TODAY)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has championed legislation against sexual assault, has had to deal with boorish comments from her male colleagues in Congress.
The New York Democrat has been called “chubby” and “honey badger” during her time in Washington. She writes about these incidents in her book, Off the Sidelines, and the comments about her weight are excerpted in PEOPLE magazine. The book has the same name as her PAC, which raises money to elect more women to office.
One example Gillibrand writes about comes from when she was working out on an elliptical machine in the House gym:
Many of my older male colleagues felt compelled to offer advice, such as this gem: ‘Good thing you’re working out, because you wouldn’t want to get porky!’ Thanks, a-hole.
While there are a record 20 women now serving in the Senate and 79 in the House, there’s no mistaking the halls of Congress are sometimes like a boys’ club.
In another anecdote, Gillibrand writes about a New York labor leader who told her that when he first met her in 2006 she was “beautiful — a breath of fresh air.” But he said she needed “to be beautiful again” if she wanted to win the 2009 special election for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate seat. (Gillibrand was appointed to the post but had to run for the remainder of the term.)
Gillibrand told PEOPLE that she’s struggled with her weight — which has fluctuated so much that she’s worn every size from 4 to 16. She hired a nutritionist and told her Senate staff to block off an hour of her day for exercise, and she eventually lost 50 pounds.
“If I look and feel good, I’m more positive and confident and people are more likely to listen to me,” Gillibrand writes in her book. “If more people are listening, I have more power to fight effectively for what I believe in.”
