Tony Blevins, Apple’s vice president of procurement, was answering a question asked by TikTok/Instagram personality Daniel Mac. Mac's thing is to ask drivers of expensive cars, "What do you do for a living?"
For his sin, Blevins has had to resign, The NY Post reports.
It's so off-brand for Apple:
You just don't picture Apple management looking and acting like that.
One excuse — though it obviously didn't work for Blevins — is that the remark was a clever evocation of a line in the 1981 movie "Arthur": "I race cars, play tennis and fondle women, but I have weekends off and I am my own boss."The 2 lines are so close, I believe Blevins intended to riff on it, but you can't count on people to know a line that obscure. There was a time — 40 years ago — when it seemed that absolutely everyone went to the movie "Arthur" and everyone loved the lovable little rascal. But I don't remember that line, and I was around in those days. Admittedly, I avoided that movie. I had other things to do than to keep up with lovable little movie rascals.
Anyway, Blevins, you idiot! How old he is? How could he be so out of touch? I think I at least 2 decades older than he is, and I hide out in a remote outpost in the Midwest, while he's in the center of things at Apple. How is such cluelessness possible? Did he not know that any random person with an iPhone can be filming you and putting it on line and within a day, the whole world can be scorning you?
Did he learn nothing from Donald Trump's "grab them by the pussy" experience? You can't brag about how you "fondle big-breasted women"! The expression of a preference for a particular type of breast — along with the unimaginative choice of "big" — is especially old fashioned and unfriendly to women.
Why did this cloddish buffoon have a high-level job at Apple in the first place?
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88 comments:
Fired for making people green with envy.
---You just don't picture Apple management looking and acting like that.
Which is why it was so refreshing to read!
Alas, then Althouse is back to the bluenose routine. Just another cop in the Era of That's-Not-Funny.
Silicon Valley is home to a massive concentration of Asperger Syndrome and semi-autistic savants. They often have superior technical skills but weird or nonexistent social abilities.
Case in point: Steve Jobs and his reality distortion field. Young Bill Gates too.
Fired for having a sense of humor.
A man talented enough to handle procurement for the world’s richest company has no doubt saved his employer billions of dollars.
Did he learn nothing from Donald Trump's "grab them by the pussy" experience?
It sounds to me like he did learn from it. Trump weathered the storm.
Bill Clinton allegedly did what Trump spoke of, with Kathleen Willey. What price did he pay?
He thought it would be a good idea to describe his job at Apple as fondling big-breasted women? Of course Apple got rid of him. But how did he get that job in the first place?
He lost his job due to the iPhone and he helped sell iPhones. Justice!
"along with the unimaginative choice of "big"
There's nothing unimaginative about admiring perfection. No one gets to the top of Everest and dreams of a smaller mountain.
"You can't brag about how you "fondle big-breasted women"!"
True. The puritans will get you.
"The expression of a preference for a particular type of breast — along with the unimaginative choice of "big" — is especially old fashioned and unfriendly to women."
What's unfriendly about it? That fondling signals lack of consent? That small-breasted women feel slighted? That a man would presume to joke about a male proclivity? All of the above?
"Why did this cloddish buffoon have a high-level job at Apple in the first place?"
Just guessing: because he was good at his job and helped Apple become the #1 company in the world, and his supposed buffoonishness had nothing to do with his work? Because, in job that actually has to show results, private predilections do not matter--provided they do not become public in a way that riles up progs and women?
It was a joke. A funny one, actually. When did people start walking around with a reindeer up their butts all the time? See "Steel Magnolias" for the movie reference.
>Ann Althouse said...
The expression of a preference for a particular type of breast and the unimaginative choice of "big" is especially old fashioned and unfriendly to women.<
So that is just a decree by you? How exactly is it unfriendly to women, per your decree? Seems rather friendly actually. The woman who was with him seemed to think so. Nor is it a matter of fashion - it is elemental and ageless, though as always, best expressed privately.
The lesson here is nothing about breasts or what you have posited about commentary on them. The lesson is that cell phones can be deadly. This guy - jovial, jocular, and frank perhaps - got shanghaied by one and it cost him dearly. He was making a harmless joke in private. BFD.
I mean the large breasted woman was sitting right there. He's clearly avoiding answering the question with a joke. People need to get a life.
He should have just said, employing many people at slave wages in China and various other countries.
but no, he had to be a smart ass
He should have just said, employing many people at slave wages in China and various other countries.
but no, he had to be a smart ass
God bless him. He is now my favorite rich guy on the Internet.
A written reprimand from Apple would have been sufficient discipline.
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By the way, does Oberlin College impose any discipline at all on its students -- even White students -- who shoplift from local stores?
He followed social style guides to offer the target audience their daily relief. Outside the comic clinic, his humor was deemed not viable, an actual burden to social progress, so they aborted... cancelled him. People's choices are a many fickle thing.
Sounds like a stupid thing I would say. "I've Seen me do it".
Which is why I will never be a VP in a corporate environment.
"You just don't picture Apple management looking and acting like that."
But I do envision that many upper level tech company people think like that. They live a life that is entirely fiction by any previous human standards. Their salaries, benefits, perks. Their companies are absolutely awash in cash to a level never before seen. They do live in another world, within our own.
So, though this guy may have been doing his best 'Arthur', to me it's not so far-fetched. Am I being to hard on the tech industry personnel?
"Tony Blevins, Apple’s vice president of procurement"
Obviously he handles the procured "goods" before handing them over to other lusty Apple executives.
Not only did I not recognize the line, I don't think I've ever even heard of the film Arthur. I'm 30. Based on his reaction, I doubt the kid filming recognized it either.
Without knowing it was roughly a quote, I thought it was a moderately witty thing to say on the fly, though obviously not a joke to make in public, or worse, with a fucking camera in your face.
You just don't picture Apple management looking and acting like that.
You might if you were familiar with Silicon Valley entrepreneurial culture.
Why did this cloddish buffoon have a high-level job at Apple in the first place?
Ooooh! I know! I know, Professor! [Waves hand enthusiastically in the air.]
Because he made lots of money for the corporation and was good at playing bureaucratic backstabbing games in the large corporate bureaucracy.
Did you see the footage of the Million dollar car that was pictured in the flood waters of Hurricane Ira?? Bet the owner of THAT car can grab women by the pussy whenever he wants. (or fondle big breasted women!!) https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/hurricane-ian-brand-new-1-million-mclaren-washed-away-in-florida-3390310
He's an idiot. Thinking he needed to be funny with a TikTok 'star' with a camera.
But hardly deserves to be forced out for that.
BTW, no way he gets replaced by a white guy.
Oh brother. It was silly. He didn't mention apple. The era of That's Not Funny is still with us.
Oberlin College impose any discipline at all on its students -- even White students -- who shoplift from local stores
Oberlin subscribes to the Pro-Choice ethical religion, including DIE (e.g. racism) doctrine, and shared entitlements not limited to bag limit benefits. The business owners suffer in willful ignorance of climate change in the social order.
"You just don't picture Apple management looking and acting like that."
I don't understand that comment. Why wouldn't you picture Apple management doing this? What is so special about that company's management that we should see them as civilized, polite and conscientious instead of amoral and hubristic, which seems far closer to the mark given the Company's behavior in the global marketplace.
employing many people at slave wages in China and various other countries.
Labor (e.g. practical and actual slavery) and environmental (e.g. Green) arbitrage, so the socially-forward kids can have their daily narcissistic treat, and industry can leverage em-pathetic appeal. It works, and people will go along, to get along, or risk abort... cancellation through publication, broadcasting, steering, or democratic decree.
You would think that a super smart guy, intimately familiar with Apple products, would have figured out that when giving interviews you do not —repeat NOT— enable the iOS feature clearly marked on your iPhone, called “Career Suicide.”
He's VP of procurement, for heaven's sake. That's what procurers do.
He should have been fired for wearing that suit!!
Why is it OK for drag queens to wear fake big breasts, but not OK for a straight guy to say he likes them?
"The expression of a preference for a particular type of breast and the unimaginative choice of "big" is especially old fashioned and unfriendly to women."
Yeah. I feel the same way about handsome, fit or young when applied to preferences in men. And I'm not even going to mention the size of a man's... oops.
'Why did this cloddish buffoon have a high-level job at Apple in the first place?'
He was probably really good at his job.
In fact, considering Apple's success over the twenty+ years he was there, I'd say that he was very good at his job.
Silly to ever talk to anyone if you're not an 'outward-facing' executive.
Apple's 'brand' these days is weedy-looking gay guys...
My mind jumped to that awful picture of the school teacher in drag with the humongous breasts. Creepy and gross.
What do we call sexual partners who invest in body dysmorphia?
I rewatched Body Heat recently and realized how we have come in this century to expect disproportionate breasts. Kathleen Turner was downright skinny.
Eleanor said...
When did people start walking around with a reindeer up their butts all the time?
About 20 years ago? I am thinking about when "ass antler" tattoos (A/K/A tramp stamps) became popular
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
Sounds like a version of the George Best quote:
"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just wasted."
Best was an unbelievably talented Northern Irish soccer player who was a heavy drinker and partier. He was one of the original 'bad boys' of soccer. I saw him play in the U.S. at the very end of his career...
I wonder if this was filmed with an Apple phone, the ultimate irony. He's better off without Apple.
IMO there is nothing wrong with fondling big-breasted women or bragging about it. Crass, perhaps, if just by itself. Funny when stated as he did.
The "mini skirt"-wearing Hostess disapproves. Oh, well. Apple sells phones that women use to send nude selfies.
MarcusB THEOLDMAN
The remark seems okay to me. It upsets the HR department, is all. A pushback against rule by women.
A lot of people think business is about selling. I-phones in this case. In business school everyone learns that it is really about buying but then nobody seems to pay attention to that.
A few companies do. Henry Ford founded Ford Motor realizing that buying needed to be a key strategic competency. Sam Walton founded Walmart making buying THE key strategic competency. Amazon does a pretty good job at buying. A few other companies do but most focus on selling.
If you can buy well enough, you don't need to sell. You will have to set up machine guns to keep customers away.
Walmart and K-Mart were direct opposites. K-Mart didn't even have their own buyers. They figured buy whatever at whatever price, mark it up and then convince customers to buy. Walmart spends HUGE amounts of money figuring out what people want, then a lot of effort getting it at a price they want to pay. One of the 2 is still in business.
This guy may well be one of the most critical people to Apple's. I bet he does not stay fired.
Perhaps he sets up his own company and Apple hires it to run procurement.
I'll be interested to see what happens to Apple's stock price over the next couple weeks if it looks like this guy will really stay fired.
John Stop fascism, vote republican Henry
You just don't picture Apple management looking and acting like that
Um -- why don't you picture them looking that like?
Because you use and admire their products you think that their Management somehow has to be, I don't know, refined? Non-waspy? What? Is one allowed to use the word snigger at that kind of wishful thinking?
He was fired because his responses revealed that he has a tiny Weiner and wasn't properly weaned as a baby. Classic signs of an embezzling douche.
So he doesn't really have rich cars, play golf, and fondle big breastfed women (except on weekends and holidays)? Well shit. Another role model shot to hell.
His remark suggests a personality well within the normal range for high end silicon valley executives. I've had plenty of exposure to it going back at least to 1988, and it's only become worse over time. It's just not well known, since there's essentially zero reporting about it.
He was fired because his responses revealed that he has a tiny Weiner
Body shaming? Tsk Tsk.
His name fits the incident very well. I can picture his boss, with round glasses and a small mustache, sputtering "Blevins, this just won't do!"
Wonder if he and Trump are best buds?
If he had said "three breasted women" it would have been okay.
Keep locker room talk in the locker room. And no grown man should be on Tik Tok. Ever.
Ha. I didn't remember that line either. I thought it was funny. But That's Not Funny people didn't think so. But, well, f*** 'em.
I have to mind my pop culture references anymore. But on the plus side, I can say a clever line from a B-=movie from 40 years ago and everyone will think I made it up myself.
Few thoughts - first, there is an ongoing meme where interviewers ask about job/salary to many on the street. I have seen many of them. So this is something he was probably familiar with. Second - he chose NOT to identify the company he works for, deflecting to a comedic response (which I thought was very funny). He clearly did NOT want to be identified as an Apple employee driving that fancy car. So does that not make him a private citizen in that context? Or is his face his identifier and he is bound by some sort of morals clause in regard to his job?
The whole thing is overblown and ridiculous. He's OFF WORK on his own time - does he have to represent the brand 100% of the time?
I don't know anything about Daniel Mac; never heard of him before. It may well be that Tony Blevins didn't, either. He seemed to me to be trying to get rid of an annoying nebbish without having to give him personal information that was none of the nebbish's business. If Mac didn't give a thorough explanation of what he was doing to start off, Tony Blevins should at least give himself and Americans' normal expectations of personal privacy a healthy defense in court. The voyeur nincompoop deserves to be bankrupted like Buzzfeed.
My impression is that the Tony Blevins we glimpse so briefly could cut most of his critics to shreds on very short notice. And deservedly so, given what is now posted about his (former) job. Former -- yes, more courage from the would-be rulers of the world in Silicon Valley.
What Fred Drinkwater said. And it won't be reported -- until Silicon Valley becomes a bastian for Republicans.
Henry Kissinger, it was reported years ago, demanded to be seated next to a "big-titted woman" (none in particular, just a big-titted one).
Was that wrong? WAS THAT WRONG!?!
Had this man worn a dress and lipstick and performed a drag show he would have been promoted.
Enigma said...
Silicon Valley is home to a massive concentration of Asperger Syndrome and semi-autistic savants. They often have superior technical skills but weird or nonexistent social abilities.
Case in point: Steve Jobs and his reality distortion field. Young Bill Gates too.
Exactly. Unfortunately, Bill Gates is still with us.
"You can't brag about how you "fondle big-breasted women"!"
True enough. The video evidence proves his, 23 and Me, Profile was deficient in African American DNA
"I like big butts, I can not lie!"
Gawker, not Buzzfeed.
If only he had said, "I fondle big breasted men," he would still have a job.
He had a job because he made apple millions and millions of dollars. They should have hired an incompetent karen instead.
Rich cars? Cars that own stocks/bonds?
Sorta crazy he got cancelled, but y'know he's probably a fucking liberal who was happy when those Goddamn Republicans lost. So too bad, so sad.
I get everything: - the gag, the Puritan response, the needless job loss.
But who has ever said 'I have rich cars'?
There was a time — 40 years ago — when it seemed that absolutely everyone went to the movie "Arthur" and everyone loved the lovable little rascal. But I don't remember that line, and I was around in those days. Admittedly, I avoided that movie. I had other things to do than to keep up with lovable little movie rascals.
Why "little"? Why twice? Why is that your takeaway from the film?
Dudley Moore struggled with that his whole life long. Consider yourself cancelled for heightism.
'Silicon Valley is home to a massive concentration of Asperger Syndrome and semi-autistic savants. They often have superior technical skills but weird or nonexistent social abilities.'
This is overblown. Yes, there are people like this, but they tend to be on the engineering side of things and/or founders.
If you are too weird you are 'retired' or shuffled off to the back room out of the public eye.
For the most part, successful people in Silicon Valley are good salespeople. You can't get rich if nobody buys your product...
"Bad 1970s Movies" ought to be a required course at universities. Students could have their fun finding racism, sexism, and homophobia, but if they watch enough of them, they may learn that that's how life was when their elders were young, and the behaviors they deplore today were what we aspired to.
Oh for the days when tech culture was wide open, quirky, subversive....and interesting
We are living thru a repeat of the 1950s organizational man
I really can't follow. What about that is offensive? Did he say he did it without asking?
If Apple hadn't fired him, no one would have known who he is or who employed him. Does Apple know about the Streisand affect?
Bad transcription. He started with, "I race cars..." Trouble with Southern drawl, maybe.
I was a house guest last weekend, and another guest was my host's former law clerk, around 30. We talked movies, and the clerk had seen virtually nothing more than a dozen years old. (Admittedly we didn't discuss children's movies). Big mistake to quote dodgy lines from classic films to social media millennials....
@Joe Smith: "This is overblown. Yes, there are people like this, but they tend to be on the engineering side of things and/or founders.
If you are too weird you are 'retired' or shuffled off to the back room out of the public eye.
For the most part, successful people in Silicon Valley are good salespeople. You can't get rich if nobody buys your product..."
Your comment's don't conflict with my claim that there's a high concentration of socially challenged people. I never said Silicon Valley didn't have a lot of salespeople -- I was explaining this specific case and a tone deaf guy at Apple. Few of us had ever heard of him, but he flamed out in his first apparent attempt at humor.
The techno-savants need the salespeople. That was the model laid down by the duos of Jobs-Wozniak and Gates-Balmer back in Silicon Valley's early days. There there are the stuffy old line firms such as HP, IBM, Oracle, etc. They are a different and more bureaucratic legal/sales breed.
Confused why this didn't get the tag of "Era of That's Not Funny", as you even noted it as a riff on the joke from Arthur. I recognized it as a line, but wouldn't have remembered it came from the movie, which I saw a few times (I recall the humor that he had a phone in his toilet stall, but now people carry a phone with a camera to the restroom all the time).
As for his statement; I'm not necessarily surprised considering where it seems he was that he felt open to being candid. It looked like a fancy event with similar people with like minds. Obviously, the woman with him didn't mind the joke about fondling big breasted women, and she's the only one that should care. I've been to such places and met such people (oddly enough usually a lot of lower level VPs), and while I don't even care to pretend to be the playboy they appear to be, you do you. Why should I be offended by him and not offended by transgendered men that do drag shows for kids?
I mostly agree with James K. above, except one thing. Apple is exactly the kind of place that would have employees that would recognize this guy and also be somehow personally offended by how he behaves in his personal life. What Apple should do is get rid of those employees.
Blevins is a particularly amusing last name if know the Austin Lounge Lizards' song "Old Blevins". If Tony Blevins can't get his career back on track, he's in danger of turning into Old Blevins himself as he ages. Seriously, go listen to the song if you don't already know it.
Since he identified neither himself nor Apple, I'm curious as to who identified him and elevated the incident to fireable level. If he really was one of the top 30 people at Apple, I'd think there'd be ways short of separation to quietly show corporate displeasure. Perhaps he wasn't as good at his job as we think, or had made the wrong enemies on the way up.
If he'd just said he fondles large breasted men he would have a cabinet position tomorrow.
Haven’t read all of the comments, but I suspect the phrase “nice work if you can get it!” has already been deployed…
'Your comment's don't conflict with my claim that there's a high concentration of socially challenged people.'
I read your comment in the context of this story and this guy, not some stereotypical tech savant.
This guy was the procurement VP at Apple...not exactly Tony Stark material.
I was trying to let people know that, having worked in tech for 40 years, the vast majority of people are quite normal...
I'd love to see him get hired by Elon Musk!
I enjoyed "Arthur", though I think my favorite line was "You're a hooker? Jesus, I forgot! I just thought I was doing GREAT with you!"
Get with the program. The CEO of Apple is most definitely not interested in fondling women. Didn't this guy get the memo?
She could have been a VP.
The sarcasm. The dark sarcasm.
Context, people, context.
Presented by TV Funhouse. Rated U for Unfunny.
Sexual Harassment and You - Saturday Night Live
Okay. What's to get mad about?
People always misrepresent what Trump said, i.e., they lie. He said, "they let you." So he said that when you're as rich and famous as he is, women flock to you. It's evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, hypergamy.
Don't fight the science!!
"BTW, no way he gets replaced by a white guy."
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The black guy they hire will be free to disparage bitches and ho's, and to wear as much bling as he wants.
If it's a black woman, she'll be free to sing WAP in the board room.
It's a "protected class" thing.
For a moment I thought there was some hope for Silicon Valley, and then my hopes were dashed.
This is straight out of the late-50s, early-60s.
The proper response by apple should have been promoting him to CEO
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