Gillibrand: I wanted to tell man 'to go [expletive] himself'

NEW YORK, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand didn't say much at the time when a male colleague criticized her weight, shortly after the birth of her child.

But now, the New York Democrat is speaking out openly -- and colorfully -- about the variety of inappropriate comments she has gotten from colleagues about her figure, detailed in her new book, Off the Sidelines.

In one instance, she described a conversation with a male colleague, identified only as a labor leader, who told her she couldn't win re-election unless she slimmed down.

"At that moment, if I could have just disappeared, I would have," Gillibrand said Monday. "If I could have just melted in tears, I would have."

"I had to just sit there and talk to him," she said. "I switched the subject and I didn't hear another word he said, but I wasn't in a place where I could tell him to go [expletive] himself."

She also mentioned one "very old" colleague who warned her to keep working out, lest she get "porky," and another who attempted to soothe her by telling her she's "even pretty when [she's] fat."

"It's all horrible," Gillibrand said, telling the Huffington Post that women "get comments like this all the time."

"A statement about a woman's looks -- positive or negative -- can be very undermining to her credibility," she said. "I want women to make their own judgments."