Race car driver Kasey Kahne has been forced to apologize for Twitter posts about his disgust at seeing a woman breastfeeding in a supermarket.
The apology, on Kahne’s Facebook page, came around 6 p.m. Wednesday, hours after his first tweets and after he’d brushed off the outrage with this post:
“Glad everyone had a good Christmas! Thanks for all the feedback.”
A few hours before his apology, racing-team sponsors Great Clips, a hair-salon chain, had posted its own mea culpa to two women Kahne had attacked online: “Our apologies for this. Please know that response was uncalled for & does not reflect our organization.”
Kahne, who finished the year fourth in the NASCAR standings, also apologized in a Twitter post to one of the woman whom he’d called “a dumb bitch” after she objected to his breastfeeding comments.
The 31-year-old said on Facebook: “I apologize. It was in no way my intention to offend any mother who chooses to breastfeed her child, or, for that matter, anyone who supports breast feeding children.
“In all honestly, I was surprised by what I saw in a grocery store. I shared that reaction with my fans on Twitter. It obviously wasn’t the correct approach, and, after reading your feedback, I now have a better understanding of why my posts upset some of you.”
Thousands of people on his site left comments, many supporting the popular driver, who earned $4.7 million this year.
But on Twitter and on other sites that picked up the story, criticism was strong.
“You’re being horribly sexist, Kasey Kahne, and your misogyny is really unattractive considering the number of female NASCAR fans,” blogger Sarah Wendell wrote on her site, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.
Kahne had originally tweeted: “Just walking through supermarket. See a mom breastfeeding little kid. Took second look because I was obviously seeing things. I wasn’t!”
A minute later, he wrote: “One boob put away one boob hanging!!! #nasty” and then “I don’t feel like shopping any more or eating.”
Kahne deleted the second post quickly but not before it had been reported and the outrage started to build.
