Yea, I’m not seeing a double standard here. If anything the reaction would be lighter. Any talk of resignation would be called puritanical and anti-women. She would be described as a free woman expressing her sexuality.
It really depends on how young and sexy the female congresswoman is as well as the tastefulness of the pics. The public will be far more forgiving for a younger woman, appreciating her beauty and at the same time making allowances for the boldness of the younger generation.
There is no way that Nancy Pelosi could elicit that kind of response.
Actually, I also agree with this. If Nancy Pelosi did it, they would call her insane and say she went off the deep end. They would call for a special election due to representative dementia
If it was a young, attractive, and popular representative, it would just be a young woman expressing her sexuality in today’s confusing world.
Typo? I spelled “naked” right!!!
I think if it were a female politician, there would be more focus on how whoever received and leaked the pictures took advantage of her and abused her trust.
I’ve not followed this all that closely, but from what I’ve read, in at least some of the cases, Weiner was pursued by the women, rather than the other way around. (In one instance that I recall, he wrote to one woman asking weren’t pictures enough?, and she responded that they were not, and that she wanted to do to him things that his wife would never do etc.) This angle has been the subject of zero focus, but this would not be the case if the genders were reversed.
In general, society tends to view women as victims in their interaction with men. (As another example, female celebrities are frequently depicted as being victimized by their male flacks, while male celebrities are depicted as taking advantage of and using the groupies.)
[On a related note, ISTM that one thing that makes this hard to see reversed is the different natures of men and women, WRT sexual imagery specifically. ISTM that men are more blunt and direct about it, and (possibly as both cause and result of this) tend to delineate more clearly sexual admiration from non-sexual admiration. A man might say he wants to do some sex act with some famous female, whether politician like Palin or some other celebrity, and this will generally mean simply that he wants to do this sex act with this person and nothing more or less than that (regardless of whether it’s actually true). But ISTM that women frequently say things like “I want to have your/so-and-so’s babies” or the like, and ultimately mean nothing more than that they really really admire this person.
As a result of this, it’s sometimes difficult to interpret the meaning of statements of this sort made by women, and I think this can sometimes complicate relationships between admiring women and men, and make it difficult to sort out pursuer from pursued. By contrast, if the situation were reversed, it would generally be more clear as to who really did what.]
Somewhat relevant question: did Laura Schlessinger’s reputation recover after similar images of her surfaced? I honestly don’t know–she’s under my radar.
Hard to say. She was fading at the time anyway.
Beyond that, the situations are not remotely comparable. LS was not sending out pictures of herself to fans. An old boyfriend released the photos. The hit she took (to the extent she took one) is that even having a BF take nude pictures didn’t jibe with her later moral stances.
I, for one, would demand the congresswoman’s immediate resignation, so that she could concentrate more fully on her presidential campaign.
I find it puzzling that so many posters think a female politician would be able to get away with not only sexting and then repeatedly lying about it, but adultery. Really?
I can’t even think of a woman in a position of power that has pulled a stunt like that, let alone one who has done it and managed to keep their job and reputation intact. Definitely can name some men who have done that or worse but survived well enough. Bill Clinton comes to mind. Elliott Spitzer is making big money at MSNBC. Newt Gingrich is making a go for the presidency, even though his cheating ways are hardly a secret.
In contrast, I chuckle at the thought that a single woman could get even away with Newt et al’s behavior and still be considered a viable presidential candidate, let alone a married one.
Nikki Haley was accused of such things, but nothing stuck. I guess there’s really no female equivalent of the blue cocktail dress.
I agree with this. I think if Pelosi were caught sending boob shoots to random twitter followerers, the reaction would be twofold:
- She’d be villified as old, disgusting, pathetic
- She’d be suspected of either inappropriately trying to influence voters or being under the thumb of some svengali who was encouraging her sexuality to try and influence her.
Women in power have to be very careful to prevent others from writing them off as merely figureheads who get power for sex. I don’t think any current American female politician would be able to escape that perception if she started sexting with strangers. I don’t think the greater public genuinely respects female sexuality, especially outside of Hollywood-like scenarios involving blonde beach bunnies.
I’m not sure you have alot of great candidates out there. Maybe Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) or Kristi Noem (R-SD).
IIRC, Dopers were ready to Lynch Sarah Palin for posing in running shorts a year or two back.
I think they could. I’m kind of skeptical that there would be much of a double standard at all. But honestly, its hard to say simply because we’ve never had a high-profile female suffer a sex-scandal. I imagine as more woman enter the political scene, we’ll eventually have start to see some, and then we’ll know.
Don’t forget that when she winks she might as well be her sticking her hands down the American voter’s pants and giving their junk a nice, tender squeeze. At least according to a lot of Dopers.
I’d buy that for a dollar.
This doesn’t sound right at all. If you’ve got some links, I’d love to see them.
Is This Newsweek Cover of Palin Sexist?
Have fun, it’s a biggie. Apologies in advance if just mentioning Palin’s going to derail this thread!
One relevant comment from Dinsdale
One from Dangerosa
And Wesley Clark
Can’t remember if someone’s clever enough to bring up Scott Brown.
There was no outcry on this board regarding these titillating shots of a half-naked Aaron Schock.