Billionaire investor Warren Buffett tried to use a bon mot to explain Kraft Heinz’s recent $143 billion takeover bid for its Anglo-Dutch rival, Unilever. But his quip quickly landed him in trouble, with critics denouncing it as sexist and saying it created confusion about the nature of sexual consent.
In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the Berkshire Hathaway CEO told host Becky Quick that the conversation between the two companies “reminds me of that old story between the difference between a diplomat and a lady.” And when Quick said she didn’t know that anecdote, he explained.
“Well, if a diplomat says yes, he means maybe,” Buffett said. “If he says maybe, he means no. And if he says no, he’s no diplomat. And if a lady says no, she means maybe. And if she says maybe, she means yes. And if she says yes, she’s no lady.”
Critics immediately denounced the joke made by the “white male gajillionaire,” as Mic put it.
Emily Peck, an executive editor of business and technology at the Huffington Post, wrote that “joking around about women giving mixed signals (they said no but meant yes) just helps perpetuate an illusion of consent that can lead to rape. … Actually, dude, no means no.”
Mashable’s Emma Hinchliffe wrote that the joke was just “one step removed from those ‘no means yes and yes means anal’ fraternity chants.”
And on Twitter, Business Insider Pedro da Costa denounced Buffett as “a chauvinist pig,” while Fortune Magazine tweeted that the analogy was “cringeworthy.”
