Stassi Schroeder apologizes after mocking & criticizing #MeToo campaign, victims

The Beguiled Premiere

I don’t watch Vanderpump Rules, so I have no idea who Stassi Schroeder is, but apparently people do know who she is and they listen to her podcast and everything. In her podcast last week, Stassi spent hours discussing the #MeToo campaign and the wave of sexual assault and sexual harassment allegations which are ripping through the entertainment and media industries and Washington too. Stassi wanted everyone to know that she’s not like those other women, those supposed feminists who listen to victims and believe them and have empathy. Stassi’s podcast was called “Are we on a male witch hunt?” and it apparently involved two hours of Stassi and her friend Jennifer Hoffner criticizing the women who have come forward, calling them attention-seeking famewhores, mocking their stories and more. The podcast has since been deleted, and Stassi’s advertisers pulled out. She waited several days before issuing an apology.

Stassi Schroeder says she “crossed a line” with her controversial comments about sexual assault on her Straight Up with Stassi podcast. On an episode titled “Are We on a Male Witch Hunt?” she referenced people who have accused men of misconduct in a way that angered many listeners. Many felt her remarks mocked victims and the #MeToo campaign. The podcast was later deleted, but two companies, Rent the Runway and Simple Contacts, announced Friday that they’d cut ties with the Vanderpump Rules star over the reported comments.

“My podcast is an outlet for me to share my unfiltered opinion with my listeners,” Schroeder tweeted on Saturday afternoon. “But on my latest episode I crossed a line. It was irresponsible for me to make generalized statements about a very serious topic, such as sexual harassment, as it is not my place to speak about anyone else’s experiences. I apologize. I will continue to speak my mind on my podcast, but will put more thought behind my dialogue moving forward.”

“These 24 hours have been sobering: I want to share your stories on my podcast: on either side, being accused of something you didn’t do or being victimized & left helpless,” she added.

In a statement, Rent the Runway had said they were “shocked” by Schroeder’s remarks regarding sexual assault and the #MeToo movement, adding, “It goes against everything RTR stands for as a company and has publicly advocated. Our 1st ads were slated to run on Mon. but effective immediately we’ve terminated our relationship with her podcast.”

Simple Contacts said in their own statement, “Women are harassed in and out of the workplace and to suggest that the #metoo campaign is made up of attention seekers belittles the pain and suffering so many women experience on a regular basis.”

[From E! News]

For the life of me, I can’t find any real quotes from the original podcast, so I have no idea how angry I should be. I think it must have been really f–king bad if her advertisers were immediately like “NO, GTFO” instead of “let’s put this under review” or whatever. The Daily Mail seems to have gotten a few quotes from the podcast, and damn, it doesn’t sound good. She basically says that if you’re making out with a guy, that’s like a down payment on oral sex, and that we shouldn’t “condemn” men just because some women say they’re sexually harassing perverts. For the love of God. The lesson here? Stop listening to podcasts from third-tier reality stars?

U.S. Premiere Of "The Beguiled"

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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48 Responses to “Stassi Schroeder apologizes after mocking & criticizing #MeToo campaign, victims”

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  1. lightpurple says:

    Who?

    • Jerusha says:

      Double who??

    • Megan says:

      I read her name as Stasi in the headline so I thought it was a podcast about East Germany.

    • mia girl says:

      Quadruple who????

    • NotSoSocialButterfly says:

      “I don’t know her.”

      • Squiggisbig says:

        The most surprising part of this story is that somebody thought it was a good investment to sponsor her podcast.

    • shlockOftheNEw says:

      I am a yoga teacher and a student told me yesterday, “I have issue with the #meToo, because I was raised with a good father and was never the type of girl who men would mess with. I was assaulted one time and I just took it, but afterwards I didn’t feel bad. I just have no idea how someone would complain about lewd comments, because who cares. I also don’t understand how someone would let themselves be raped”. I’m kind of haunted by a woman having zero empathy, criticism for and disbelief of another woman’s pain, because “they must have had bad fathers”.

      • blairski says:

        Wow. schlockOftheNEw – what did you say?

      • Pinetree13 says:

        Let themselves be raped?!!!! Let themselves!!!!

        “I don’t understand why people let themselves, be murdered”. “I don’t understand people that let themselves be robbed”.

        It’s amazing how sexual assault is the one crime that is the victims fault.

        I’m glad it wasn’t me in your shoes…I would have erupted into a ball of flames right then!

    • Mabs A'Mabbin says:

      Quin who?

  2. Valiantly Varnished says:

    Apparently this is not the first time she has said something awful on her podcast. She seems to be a real garbage person overall. Her apology is lame and disingenuous considering that she was just on Twitter two days ago acting like she was the victim in all this and justifying what she said. She has only apologized to avoid losing any more sponsors.

  3. MMC says:

    Thinking the only reason she “apologized” was her reduced income.

  4. Neelyo says:

    ‘“These 24 hours (OF MY BUSINESS BEING NEGATIVELY IMPACTED) have been sobering:”

    Thought I’d include the subtext.

  5. Hh says:

    I don’t know who this is, although I have heard of the reality show she originally (or still?) appeared on. I’m more annoyed by the people trying to talk out of both sides of their mouth on issues such as this. They support the victims but are scared of a witch hunt. They believe some of the stories, but feel others are exaggerated. If you’re going to be an a**hole, at least commit to it.

  6. HK9 says:

    This girl is from the Z list of reality TV and will literally do and say anything for attention. She’s a thirsty fameho with no future….nothing to see here.

  7. aims says:

    This is just another example of women against women. Yes she’s a third tier reality star, but it shows the bigger picture. This is why women are afraid to come forward. There’s always going to be someone who is going to mock or flat out make the victims feel guilty for something that they have had no control over. I am disgusted and outraged on behalf of the brave women who have come forward, knowing full well that they have to deal with aholes like her.

    • PauKay says:

      I support women sharing their stories, and speaking-out and I too find them very brave. But I am also a bit concerned about the whole innocent-until-proven guilty thing we all use to believe in. I feel like mass persecution comes hard and fast without hard proof (mostly he-said-she-said). And I’m sorry to say, but some women (very few admittedly) do indeed come forward for attention or for shut-up money. And why is it so not ok to even mention? I don’t agree with Stassi, I am just being the devil’s advocate.

  8. Mumbles says:

    All I know about her is that her family appeared – and I think won – a family edition of the Amazing Race about a decade ago. So she’s been a fameball for years and comes from a fameball family.

  9. Dragonlady sakura says:

    Just stop with fake apologies. You meant everything you said and only because of backlash do you say sorry. Not a brain cell in that empty head of hers! 😡

    • Caly says:

      Right! I’m so over these apologies, you said what you meant, you meant to what you said! This one is only sorry she’s losing sponsors.

    • Wilder says:

      This! She talked about it for TWO HOURS on her podcast. How do you talk for two hours about something and not think, for even one minute, “Hm, maybe this is inappropriate?” Her apology after-the-fact is completely disingenuous.

  10. daisyfly says:

    “My podcast is an outlet for me to share my unfiltered opinion with my listeners.”

    And she did just that. The only reason she’s apologizing is because she’s losing money. She isn’t actually apologetic. Some women genuinely believe that a woman opens herself up for sexual assault because of a kiss, or a dress, or a look, or EXISTING.

    Stassi is one of the reasons why #METOO is important. Women can be just as culpable in enabling blame and we need women like Stassi to see that no one, no matter what society tells you, deserves to be sexually assaulted or harassed.

  11. Kristen says:

    Damn, misogyny sure is insidious.

  12. Island_girl says:

    But she didn’t mock the #metoo movement. She felt as though the movement was being bogarted by the press.

    • Obvious is Obvious says:

      Bogarting how?

      Fake news? The press is making up stories?

      Or maybe they’re giving a voice and an outlet to women who have been shooed away before? Tell me, What is an acceptable way to you, for people to share their stories?

  13. PPP says:

    “I want to share your stories on my podcast: on either side, being accused of something you didn’t do or being victimized & left helpless.”

    Uh-huh. Both sides, both sides. Some very fine people on both sides.

  14. Tess says:

    Yeah no. Her podcast was MUCH worse. So gross and victim blaming and really offensive. There’s quotes floating around twitter of it. She’s said ignorant things before but not like this. This is next level terrible.

  15. Bros says:

    She was the villainess of vanderpump rules and a nasty nasty insecure person who was eventually kicked off the show for a couple seasons until she begged and wormed her way back on. Lazy entitled brat, from a rich enabling family who encourages her famewhoring. She’s awful.

  16. BobaFelty says:

    I do watch Vanderpump Rules, and thought Stassi was just a bumbling idiot with anger management issues. But she was mostly just self-destructive.

    However, what she said on her podcast was clear victim-blaming. It was gross. There are screen shots on Twitter of what she said on her podcast. She went into great detail about how often she thinks women falsely accuse men of sexual assault just because they’re embarrassed about a hookup the next day. How great it is that Betsy Devos wants to change Title 6 to make it harder for women to prove harassment and assault. Her podcast was 2 hours long, and she ranted a long time about lying women. It was no misunderstood comment.

  17. belle says:

    I don’t get chicks like this. Is she incredibly desperate for male approval or is she so insecure she has to attempt to put down sexual assault survivors as a means to lift herself up? Really, I do not understand how one can be so dense.

  18. Jayna says:

    All I will say is she looks striking in the photo. She is a Z-list reality star. I don’t pay attention to what they have to say anyway. Those young Z-listers aren’t exactly the brightest light bulbs on the planet.

  19. Medusa says:

    This has attention seeking written all over it:
    – 56th tier reality tv personality, check
    – Very touchy subject, check
    – No scrupules, just a desperate need for attention, check
    She so did this for the headlines and some more headlines with her fake apology.

  20. LittlefishMom says:

    She’s a big mouth, rude, drunk, raging, spoiled brat who thinks the world give a frogs fat a** about her “opinions”. The fact that she even has a podcast to rant is nauseating. Please stop giving these talentless people a platform to speak.

    • Obvious is Obvious says:

      The danger is that perpetrators will listen or read what she says and it will confirm for them that what they’re doing is right and not abuse. That the women must ‘want it’, as Stassi would have you believe.

      So while her opinion (and herself) is garbage, it’s the horror that her words reach people who will feel emboldened by what she says.

  21. fes says:

    I was reading the instagram comments on her “apology” and it’s really disheartening to see that there are many women responding with support, saying that they share her thinking. I get that being groped is different than being raped, but where are people’s compassion for everyone who’s suffered any type of violation?

  22. ashleesimpsonsnose says:

    i don’t trust anyone on a bravo show to begin with. reality stars are generally awful, yeah, but there’s something about bravo that irks me especially

  23. Persistent Cat says:

    I’ve never heard of her before so I just searched her on Twitter. She’s losing other sponsors. There are bits of transcript there too. She’s horrible and her friend is dumb as sh*t.

  24. markweer says:

    I used to watch the show she was involved in on Bravo. It was a bunch of dysfunctional 20 somethings who were rewarded for obnoxious behavior and it was strange to watch. They were for the most part attractive people who were probably popular in High School and peaked there. The show and it’s environment as well as the place they worked helped reignite this despicable High School behavior ( particularly hers since she attended an all-girls/catholic high school in the South which can cultivate some true MEAN GIRLS, but they also nuture passive/aggression like you wouldn’t believe). Her interactions with women on the show has to be seen to be believed and worse there were no real repercussions for her actions. She was surrounded by women (& weak men) who either supported or excused her actions so it’s no surprise that some of those same types listen to her podcast and agreed sheepishly with her.

  25. Liela22 says:

    Sounds like an idiot just like my now ex friend who victim blamed me after I was raped.

  26. Donna Martin says:

    Who’s a top tier reality star? Serious question