Sunny Hostin Recalls 'Binding My Breasts' for Job Interviews Because Men 'Never Looked at My Face'

'The View' co-host opened up about her experiences with workplace harassment while discussing Joy Behar's new essay on the topic

Sunny Hostin is reflecting on her experience as a young lawyer.

During Friday's episode of The View, the 55-year-old co-host and her peers talked about Joy Behar's newly published essay on workplace harassment, when Hostin detailed her own experiences as a young woman in the workforce.

“When I was coming up at the Justice Department and when I was coming up in law firms,” Hostin said. “We had options [to report harassment], but I wouldn’t dare use them so as not to be blackballed out of a position because the structure, it was a patriarchy.”

Hostin also described how men would treat her during job interviews, and how she would "bind" her breasts during meetings with prospective employers.

“As everyone knows I had plastic surgery, I had a breast reduction. I recall so many interviews as a young lawyer where men never looked at my face," she said. "They just looked straight at my chest. And I started binding my breasts so that I could get a job.”

Related: Joy Behar Announces New Retrospective Book About 'Everyone and Everything'

Hostin spoke to PEOPLE last year about her breast reduction and lift, as well as her liposuction, which she underwent in the summer of 2022. As she said at the time, she wants to start a conversation about those types of procedures in an effort to destigmatize them, calling them a "health decision and a self-care decision."

"I thought I would feel shame, like, 'Oh my God, I'm doing plastic surgery like all these crazy celebrities.' But I don't feel shame at all," she said at the time. "And I hope sharing my story will help more people. If they're feeling so body-conscious, the way I was — they can do what they need to do to feel better."

Friday's conversation came as Behar's essay "#MeToo: The Early Years" was published on Air Mail. In the essay she detailed her experiences with workplace harassment as a teacher in the '60s.

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The essay marks the first chapter in Behar's upcoming memoir, which PEOPLE confirmed in November. Behar told her co-hosts on The View Friday that in the '60s, women had to "handle it ourselves" when it came to workplace harassment. "We didn't have HR or pepper spray even," she said on the show.

"We could either yell at them or gouge their eyes out with keys. And this behavior then was shrugged off as 'boys being boys.'"

In the essay, Behar recounted a moment where the chairman of her English department told her he "could’ve f----- you on the blackboard."

"I was torn. On the one hand, I was revulsed. On the other hand, I was a self-supporting, single woman with no trust fund waiting for me, and the chairman of the English department liked my lesson," Behar wrote. "My mind raced."

In November, publisher Regalo Press announced that Behar's book would showcase her "acute powers of observation and her ability to vividly recreate the little details and fleeting moments that make up a lifetime."

Slated for release sometime in late 2024 or early 2025, the still unnamed memoir will feature Behar's thoughts about relatives, hair, bullies and romance, as she takes "aim at everyone and everything, including herself."

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