It's a ... CLASS thang.
You wouldn't understand.
Trouble with these manufactured scandals is everyone has their own take on what exactly the problem, or the point, is.*
Today, Maureen Dowd gives us another point of view. "The women" (generic women, presumably all) object, not so much because the "other" women weren't willing participants, giving back what they got, descriptive word for descriptive word... but because too often -- Ahnold's housekeeper, DSK's interrupted conquest, Weiner's fantasy womanizing -- these powerful men have been dating down.
Must say, Ms. Maureen, I surely missed that angle. Saw these women as women (wives, playahs, the Kennedy woman and her housekeeper), not as distinct social classes of women.
[Although that take does explain something I was long wondering about: how come nobody even seemed to mention Peter Orswag's (sic) sexual proclivities and lack of character when he was busy bedding, and birthing bastard babies with even!, his own chic-geek harem. I mean ladies, come on: if Weiner's online appetites are all that bad, why exactly was Peter Orswag given a pass in the character department with all the sexual past play? Got it now -- high-class ladies all. The new wife, the old wife, the mistress. Pay to play; scandal goes away...]
But there you have it: if you're going cattin' and going to drag something home (even virtually via the Internet, if no physical contact or presumption of physical risk takes place), make sure she's worthy. Inquire about income and upbringing, and for heaven's sake: don't "date down" and embarrass the missus!
When Democratic front-runner Gary Hart had his vertiginous fall in 1987, after his photo with Miami model Donna Rice on the Monkey Business hit the papers, feminists were irate that this progressive pol was treating women as objects.
They found it especially galling that Hart had married up — winning the daughter of a former president of his college — and then got caught dating down.
The weenie Weiner married up to Hillary Clinton’s aide, the glamorous and classy Huma Abedin, and only 11 months later got caught e-dating down with a Vegas blackjack dealer, a porn star and a couple of college students.
So it wasn't so much the alleged "crime" of disobeying the marital vows, as McArdle alleges without knowing Ms. Abedin's understanding of their partnership, as it was ... the class of the trash he done carnally associated with, eh?
How can you stand to think that way?
Did you really think about it, before you made the rules?
That's just the way it is. Some things will never change.
That's just the way it is. Ah, but don't you believe them...
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* I'm with this guy, myself:
The biggest offense in this case is the dirtying of the public airwaves and news-waves with ugly, trivial junk; it’s an offense like the one that used to be popular a generation ago with “urban youths,” who would carry around giant boom boxes and play music (or whatever it was) at deafening volumes.
For my part I couldn’t care less what sort of pictures or messages Weiner has been sending around the Net, and it’s an imposition to be required to care; to be unable to avoid the topic. I find that I have no interest in Congressman Anthony Weiner’s sex life or virtual sex life whatsoever. And I’ve heard enough tearful on-camera contrition to last me the rest of my life. I don’t want to hear Weiner’s apology. It’s got nothing to do with me, tells me nothing I want to know; the cable news media, conservative and liberal, would do the public a favor if they would agreed to a blanket tearful-apologies ban effective this instant. And in the future, let Weiner and everyone else who has done some trivial stupid thing that no one actually gives a damn about keep his apologies to himself."
~ David Gelernter, National Review.
David Gelernter is author, most recently, of Judaism: A Way of Being.
** And this guy sounds pretty world wise too:
'Leave It to the Voters'At this stage the matter is really between Weiner and his wife, and Weiner and his constituents, though the rest of Weiner's party is also affected by the results. Mainly, like most people, I'm just sad about the needless damage all around.
...
It is now up to Weiner, his wife, his constituents, and his Congressional allies. Good luck to them all. On to other topics soon.
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