Atlantic County Freeholder John Carman should apologize for a post denounced as denigrating women during the Women’s March on Washington, county Executive Dennis Levinson said Wednesday.
Levinson spoke the day after county residents, many of them women, criticized Carman over the Facebook post. The post was a photograph of a woman standing over a cooking pot with the text, “Will the woman’s protest be over in time for them to cook dinner?”
“He didn’t ask for my advice, but I would suggest that he apologize to anyone that felt offended by it and put it behind him,” Levinson said.
More than 30 people criticized Carman during Tuesday’s freeholder meeting for the post.
At the end of the meeting Tuesday, though, Carman did not issue an apology — he said he learned how strong the women in his family are, and they looked at it and weren’t offended.
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“I grant you that I made a bad choice. It was in bad taste, the joke I posted,” he said to the packed room at the Stillwater Building Tuesday. “Nothing serious about it, and it doesn’t reflect my sentiments.”
Levinson said Carman still has the opportunity to apologize.
“The issue has caught on,” Levinson said. “Obviously this has struck a chord.”
Assemblyman Chris Brown, R-Atlantic, also called on Carman to apologize for the post.
“What he did was insensitive and disrespectful, so I expect him to apologize,” he said.
Deb Huber, the president of NOW NJ, the National Organization for Women of New Jersey, said she was “appalled” by the freeholder’s remarks and said the mentality is like one from decades ago. “He just doesn’t understand that that’s not funny,” she said. “It so demeans the march. It’s as if one man’s dinner is more important than 4 million women hitting the streets the same day for women’s rights.”
Huber added that she’s “not surprised” by the divide in opinions on the issue across the country. But there’s no excuse to make jokes about it, she said.
Stockton University professor Kristin Jacobson said an apology isn’t worth much if he is forced to do it.
Instead, she would like to see him support women’s interests at events in the area, including one at Stockton on Feb. 7 that will feature students talking about their experience at the Women’s March on Washington.
Jacobson, who is an associate professor of American literature, American studies and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, said several students spoke to her on campus and on social media.
“Their reactions were similar to those at the freeholder meeting,” she said. “A lot of them said they thought the country had moved beyond this.”
There are several examples across the country where mostly male public officials have gotten punished or called out for social media posts that referenced women’s marches Saturday, she said.
Jacobson, who is also the chairwoman of the Atlantic County Advisory Commission on Women, said she encourages anyone who is passionate about this to contact the commission and the freeholders to provide feedback on how to best advocate for women living in Atlantic County.
“If citizens left the freeholder meeting yesterday feeling like they were not heard, know that the ACACW is listening. Doing so is a vital part of our mission,” she said.
