Apple VP steps down after TikTok joke about 'fondling big-breasted women'
The viral TikTok video includes Apple VP Tony Blevins joking about "fondling big-breasted women" for a living.
Apple’s Vice President of Procurement, Tony Blevins, is stepping down from his role following backlash over a recent viral TikTok video that he appears in. In the video from @itsdanielmac, which has been viewed over 1.3 million times, Blevins is asked about what he does for a living.
While attempting to exit his expensive Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren (valued at over $500k), Blevins jokingly replies, “I have rich cars, play golf, and fondle big-breasted women” before saying “but I take weekends and major holidays off.” The videographer then mentions that he’s “looking to get into that” himself, to which Blevins remarks, “Well, if you’re interested, I’ve got a hell of a dental plan.”
As noted by outlets like CNBC, Blevins’ joking remarks are seemingly in reference to a similar quote from the 1981 movie, Arthur. In terms of what Blevins did while at the company, according to a Wall Street Journal profile on Blevins from 2020, it’s noted that his main role at Apple centered around negotiating with suppliers to keep the price Apple pays for its computer parts down, and that he even earned the nickname “The Blevinator” due to his firm stance on price negotiations.
@itsdanielmac Quite the occupation this man has ✍️ #mercedesbenz #supercarstiktok #slr #car ♬ original sound - DANIEL MAC
Given how quickly the video has spread, and the degree of backlash it’s garnered, it’s not altogether surprising to learn that Apple reportedly conducted an internal investigation into the matter. Following this, and Blevins’ exit from the company, it’s said that Apple Senior VP of Operations, Jeff Williams, will be overseeing Blevins’ team in the interim.
In speaking with Bloomberg following the TikTok video incident, Blevins offered the following apology: “I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone who was offended by my mistaken attempt at humor.”
For more on the matter, you can view the TikTok video on the channel for @itsdanielmac and can brush up on the aftermath in coverage from outlets like CNBC and Bloomberg. For more on Apple in general, be sure to read through some of our previous coverage as well including Apple reportedly paring back iPhone production plans as demand slows, and the Apple App Store rules imposing a 30 percent commission on in-app NFT trades.
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replyMorgan Shaver posted a new article, Apple VP steps down after TikTok joke about 'fondling big-breasted women'
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a woman on the internet? chance in a million.
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seems a bit much for an inapproriate attempt at humor
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Says he stepped down?
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Dental plan
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Dang you gotta be pretty cut off from the world at large to think quoting Arthur is going to land with an audience lol.
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i don't personally think so, but he is in a very visible leadership position in a company that employees a lot of women
that he found that an appropriate joke to make may make some of them feel uncomfortable reporting to him or encountering him, for reasons i probably won't understand as a man who is familiar with the joke in question
i can see why it put apple in a difficult position and it probably behooves him to not make this a hill to die on + drag apple through the mud with him. i'm sure he's got a bunch of glowing references and will land on his feet.-
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Apple VP is also extremely high visibility, even compared to other large companies.
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I'm always baffled at how many people treat social media like it's their own personal comedy club instead of what it really is, a platform where content like this can be seen and shared by anyone.
Is this a joke you could make around friends or colleagues? Absolutely. Is this something that a high profile employee at a major org like Apple should be making at work or in public? Nope. If you wouldn't want your coworkers to hear you making this type of joke at the office then you shouldn't put it on social media.-
"Free speech" seems for many to mean "I say whatever I want whenever I want in front of any audience I want and nobody can even utter an opinion about it".
Like you're not being silenced; you're representing a company and you're in a open marketplace of thoughts & ideas and if tons of people think you're being a sexist asshole...then maybe you are.
The guy is probably fine, just made a really dumb choice as a major public-facing exec of one of the most famous companies on the planet.
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The company finds itself in the position of choosing itself or this knucklehead
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Guessing it's the company he works for setting those as the options, and he just put them in an awkward position in front of 1.3 million people lol. People been fired for a hell of a lot less.
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This has been happening for quite some time. When I was in IBM, back in 2005 a fantastic 15 year employee that led super cool innovative stuff in the company was giving a talk to a bunch of interns. He was encouraging them to come up with new exciting ideas and not overly focus on the code quality of their summer projects. He said, "Look if we just wanted a bunch of code monkeys we would have just hired anyone. You are here to innovate." In the room was an Indian-American IBM Fellow (super senior politically). He complained to HR that he was offended. To him, monkey was a racial slur against Indians. HR came that day and said exactly "Did you say this phrase as reported to us?" and he answered yes. He was immediately escorted out of the building and fired.
The thing is the company isn't really in a position to judge degree of context or color or whatever..by allowing even an inch once reported, they are open to huge liability that they tolerated a culture of intolerance or misogyny or racism or whatever. Companies at scale won't accept that risk it could snowball from lots of little isolated stupid things into a giant lawsuit that paints quite the picture of a pattern. So it's just safer to jettison folks.-
Code monkey to me was a below average programmer. Googling it, there was even a TV show called code monkeys. This isn't some racist term but a term to describe someone's ability at a job. To me, your story reminds me of a white person who talked about money going into a black hole. A black man was in the conversation, got seriously offended, and asked why it wasn't a white hole. Being offended doesn't mean the other person was wrong or even offensive. I think the IBM HR opened themselves up to a counter lawsuit for unjustly firing that guy and ruining his reputation. While you are right that HR probably felt it was "safer to jettison" that guy, I think they went too far accommodating the other person who didn't understand the term.
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Yes.
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Pretty sexist to discriminate against big-breasted men.
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My name is Robert Paulson
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