Andrew Cuomo's bizarre photo montage is a smokescreen

Andrew Cuomo.
(Image credit: Illustrated | AP Images, iStock)

I come from a family with a loud, overly-affectionate Italian patriarch, so it was my grandfather who I immediately thought of on Tuesday when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo responded to a state attorney general's report on accusations of sexual harassment with a slideshow of him kissing and holding the faces of acquaintances and strangers.

"I do it with everyone," Cuomo insisted, a justification that some joked was akin to blaming the fact that he's Italian. "I now understand that there are generational, or cultural perspectives that frankly I had not fully appreciated," he went on. "And I have learned from this."

See more

But Cuomo's slideshow was a smokescreen, and the fact that it reminded me of my grandfather meant it was a somewhat effective one at that. Because Cuomo's attempt to draw comparisons to, say, a slightly off-color but harmless older relative is only a distraction from the disturbing substance of the attorney general's findings.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

After all, by no stretch of the imagination is it a mere difference of "generational or cultural perspectives" that makes a person think it's okay to kiss an executive assistant on the lips, "[grab] her buttocks during hugs, [ask] multiple times about whether she had cheated or would cheat on her husband, and once [reach] under her blouse and [grab] her breast," as one staff member graphically claimed Cuomo did.

Nor does the mere fact of being Italian predispose one to a "pattern of inappropriate conduct" with their staff, including a state trooper who accused Cuomo of running "his hand across her stomach, from her belly button to her right hip" when she opened a door for him. He even made sexually suggestive jokes to the doctor doing his COVID-19 nasal swab.

The fact that the photo montage made seemingly well-intentioned, familiarly European gestures the focal point of conversation on Tuesday lets the governor off the hook for his even bigger, more threatening actions. The montage still definitely makes him look like a creep, don't get me wrong — but it doesn't make him look, necessarily, like a predator. And that's a win for him.

Cuomo's bizarre photo montage was just that: weird and wacky enough to dominate the day's headlines, the online jokes, and the conversations and text messages, but also recognizable. It shouldn't be, nor should the familiarity now of men exploiting their positions of power to harass women who are just trying to do their jobs. With his photos and grandfatherly defense, Cuomo is trying to distract you. Don't let him.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.