Casey Crowe Taylor, a former Victoria’s Secret publicist, opened up a couple of “hurtful” expertise the place the corporate’s former govt, Ed Razek, allegedly physique shamed her on set.
Crowe Taylor first shared her story in the course of the third episode of Hulu’s Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons, which is centred on the lingerie model’s success and downfalls whereas underneath the lead of its CEO, Leslie Wexner.
During the episode, Crowe Taylor disclosed particulars about working with Razek, who was the Chief Marketing Officer of the model’s guardian firm, L Brands. Some of his tasks whereas working within the place from 1983 to 2019 included arranging Victoria’s Secret’s annual style present.
She shared a particular expertise from 2015 that had occurred on set of a photoshoot throughout lunchtime. According to Crowe Taylor, as she was going to get extra meals at a buffet, she was “physically stopped” by Razek, earlier than he started criticising her physique.
“I was going up to get more and Ed physically stopped me, like stepped in front of me and said, ‘Are you really going to get more food?’ and I just kind of froze,” she defined. “And he’s like, ‘I really don’t know how you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning.”
She went on to recall how she “walked to the bathroom” and was “hot with humiliation” because of Razek’s feedback. As she detailed how “hurtful” it was to be “harassed” at work, she additionally expressed how his “behaviour” in the direction of his colleagues shouldn’t have been allowed.
“I’m shaking,” Crowe Taylor continued. “It was so confusing and hurtful and just like shocking being bullied and harassed out of nowhere in front of the world’s biggest supermodels. I realised this is not normal. This should not be an acceptable thing to happen but his behaviour was just so normalised.”
The publicist additionally defined that “about a week later”, Monica Mitro, the previous EVP of Public Relations for Victoria’s Secret, approached her and talked about how Razek “makes really weird jokes”. Crowe Taylor additionally stated that she was then finally inspired to resign, after her dialog with Mitro.
“Monica Mitro puts up an elbow on my cubicle wall and says, ‘By the way, Casey. Ed makes some really weird jokes sometimes. Doesn’t he?’ It was pretty much that day, I immediately started looking for other jobs,” she defined.
During a current interview with People, Crowe Taylor opened up concerning the alleged incident and stated she felt like she couldn’t “stand up” for herself throughout it, because of her job title.
“It was the disrespect and the humiliation of someone who is so low on the totem pole,” she stated. “It’s not like I was in a position to stand up for myself or have a conversation.”
(AFP by way of Getty Images)
She informed the publication that she reported the incident to her boss who had spoken about it with Mitro. While Crowe Taylor additionally shared that she had spoken to human sources about Razak, she stated that she’s nonetheless unsure if anybody spoke to him about his behaviour.
Regarding how Razak had handled Crowe Taylor, the previous worker addressed how “alarming” it was that Mitro didn’t speak to her about “what happened” and “why it wasn’t ok”.
“Even having her say something like, ‘It wasn’t appropriate. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about it. All I can do is tell you is that I know it wasn’t right,’” Crowe Taylor defined. “But there’s a fine line, if she acknowledges it, what does it become in the company?”
The former Victoria’s Secret employee went on to acknowledge how leaving the job was much like a “heartbreaking breakup” due to how a lot she liked her place and then-employees. However, she stated that she couldn’t keep at an organization that “completely devalued” her.
“I love this job. I love the people that I work with but I cannot work in a place that completely devalues me and can’t even respect on a level of acknowledging what happened to me and saying it wasn’t ok,” she defined.
“This was a dream job. I loved it for a really long time. I was really happy,” she added. “And that’s what made the end so difficult because it felt like a really terrible, heartbreaking breakup.”
Elsewhere within the documentary, Crowe Taylor recalled one other incident the place Razek allegedly made inappropriate remarks to his co-workers. Specifically, he reportedly shared his personal claims as to why he thought ladies would “work out”.
“I remember being on set once and Ed made the comment that women only workout to look good naked for men,” she claimed. “There was always this understanding that like that was just Ed.”
Back in 2020, Razek had denied sexual harassmeent allegations that have been positioned towards him throughout an interview withThe New York Times. He informed the publications that the claims have been “untrue, misconstrued or taken out of context”.
The Independent has contacted Victoria’s Secret for remark.
