The Congressman Weiner idiocy has been unfolding in about the same span as my finding out Joanna Russ had passed away and as he has gone from flat denial ("...an internet hoax...I am the victim....") to tearful (bragging!) admission of chatting women up and sending icky piccies -- to many women, over several years -- to that last refuge of the sexist jerk, I-can't-help-it-the-little-Weiner-took-over-it's-just-too-easy-nowadays, I can only ask myself what she might've thought about the situation.
It's a generalization, but if any boy was gonna be foursquare for treatin' women as something other than toys, I'd've thunk a liberal Dem from the greater NYC area, married to a successful high-level political operative, would be the guy. (An' prolly humorlessly sincere about it, too -- but noooooo, he's a Grade A Clueless Tool. My new rule: whatever any Congressbeing presents itself as, it is instead the exact opposite. That would explain the drugged-up, sex-fiend, contemptuous of the common man spendthrifts we seem have elected, wouldn't it?)
I would've been wrong and not just a little; the tone, tenor and story arc of his reaction to being caught out has been straight out of a (supposedly) long-outdated playbook, right down to his winking undertone that it wasn't all that wrong, after all it was just (over18 but under 30!) girls. Frekkin' pig.*
Russ likely would've had something pointed and poignant to say and perhaps -- with the wisdom of age -- she would not have been much surprised. As it is, she got out just in time.
Gun culture, conservative as it is, has more than once been accused of sexism. Maybe it is; I doubt there's been a whole darned lot of consciousness-raising, at least not without well-deserved snickering, but speaking as a woman who shoots, I have never been treated as shabbily therein as Congressthing Weiner has treated his Twitettes. There's some sort of a moral in there but I'll leave it for the reader to winkle out.
Update: Carl B. offers his own take. Man's got a point; I'll point out that though it takes two to tango, it only takes one to stop the dance. Or is that his point?
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* I don't mind the cheating-spouse aspect of this -- that's between him and the missus (I'll loan her a rolling pin or a cast-iron skillet if she's not had time to get one) -- nearly so much as his trivialization of it. Sheesh, Tony, get a pinup calendar or subscribe to a men's magazine: they're intended to be disposable media. Real women in real time are not toys and your offense was not the sending of the crotch shot, the flirting or the getting caught, it was when you confused "woman" with "candy bar," something sweet and forgettable to refresh your idle moments.
Come to think of it, that was my beef with Mr. the President Clinton, too.
Full disclosure..I'm a clueless male....
ReplyDeleteMany men seem predisposed to treat women as disposable toys and there seems to be an endless supply of women willing to play. What do the women hope to gain from such a relationship?
Please forgive my cluelessness.
I'm just not clear about your feelings. Can I put you on my picture email list or not?
ReplyDelete*snort*
This, of course, broke at more-or-less the same time as Ah-nold's indiscretions came to light. Except that there have been murmurings of that whole shabby setup for years. Of course, Ah-nold is nominally GOP, but, as I said to someone who was feeling sorry for Maria, he married into the Kennedy clan, she had to know all about this sort of behavior...
ReplyDelete"It's a generalization, but if any boy was gonna be foursquare for treatin' women as something other than toys, I'd've thunk a liberal Dem from the greater NYC area, married to a successful high-level political operative, would be the guy."
ReplyDeleteMaybe she makes him feel inadequate, and he is trying to compensate?
Just a thought.
"It's a generalization, but if any boy was gonna be foursquare for treatin' women as something other than toys, I'd've thunk a liberal Dem from the greater NYC area, married to a successful high-level political operative, would be the guy."
ReplyDeleteThe Left has been doing its damndest for at least half a century to corrupt and dissolve such 'bourgeois' concepts as graceful manners, propriety, and sexual continence.
Wait--you were being a wee bit ironic, weren't you?
I think it's going to come out that Weiner's marriage to Hillary Clinton's "valet" (chuckle) is a marriage of convenience, if you hear what I'm sayin'.
Mike James
Bob G: If true, I'll never understand it. Let us assume theirs is (or maybe has been) a quite conventional marriage: Congressbeing Wiener has romanced with, wedded to and is now knockin' boots with The Hilary's right-hand woman and that makes him feel so inadequate he's got to send tasteless photos to college-student admirers in order to feel more of a rrrrealll man?
ReplyDeleteGollllleeeeee, Sgt. Carter, even if we use the simplistic/sexist "conquest" yardstick, it's as if Ahab, havin' caught the Great White Whale, preferred ever after to fish in overstocked barrels to restore his fragile ego 'cos Moby Dick was too overwhelming....
Does. Not. Compute.
Anon: if everybody's willin' to play, they all get the same thing, a kid of fast-food drivethru version of a relationship. Consume it an' keep movin'. IMNSHO opinion kinda sad but they're commodifyin' one another, it's just tacky, not wrong.
ReplyDeleteAlas, the target of The Wiener's latest Twittering affaire d'jour does not seem to have entered into the thing in quite the same spirit as the man himself; and that's where things break down.
Roberta, "22tango/12stop" was pretty much my point, even in my own personal experiences. But it's been many a long year since I fell for that "good friend" scam; being socially inept, it took a while, but finally learned the steps (to continue the metaphor).
ReplyDeleteRegarding Bob's suggestion: I did see one sly innuendo that Huma might not be doing much for Wiener's... ego. But the (last I saw, unsubstantiated) report that she's preggers would tend to disprove that one. Nah, the guy's just a typical C-scum with a lousy set morals or ethics, not mention poor impulse control. But I repeat myself.
I'd like to point out that the pic that started the whole thing- the bulging-undies one- was sent completely unsolicited to a woman because she happened to be 21 and female. She maintained (and through the efforts of the professional dirt-diggers, was upheld) that she'd never been in any kind of exchange or relationship with him, he just dick-pic'd her.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure she was far from the only one, too. She was just the one willing to blow the whistle.
He was NOT just a consensual philanderer.