Why Powerful Women (Mostly) Avoid Sex Scandals

Catherine the Great was a woman with an extravagant, exacting sexual appetite. During the 34 years of her reign, she had a host of young, well-trained lovers--many of them soldiers--who were paid handsomely for sating her, and were often rewarded with plum positions on her court, or gifts of property or serfs. Her libido was so legendary that when she died of a stroke in 1796, rumor spread quickly that she had been crushed under the weight of a stallion she was attempting to have sex with. It's a myth that has endured, and serves as a reminder of our fascination with powerful, sexual women: will they stop at nothing?

The question is, as another round of public sex scandals unfolds, where are these women today? The confessions of Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson--the man who, on the same day he replaced Spitzer, admitted to past affairs--pale when compared with tales of the Russian empress. Yet while there has been a spate of men caught with their pants around their ankles in recent years, political scientists scratch their heads when asked to come up with a female equivalent for the men (Spitzer, former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey) the New York tabs have dubbed "Luv Guvs."

There have been only a handful of minor scandals involving women in public office in America, and most of them have been due to love affairs, not casual--or commercial--liaisons. In 1989, when Sue Myrick was running for re-election as mayor of Charlotte, N.C., she confessed to having had a relationship with her husband while he was still married to another woman in 1973. (She went on to win the election.) In 1998, shortly after U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, a Republican from Idaho, began airing anti-Clinton advertisements insisting "personal conduct does count," she admitted to having had a six-year affair in the 1980s with a married man who later worked on her congressional staff. In 2004, state Rep. Katherine Bryson of Utah was caught with a lover on a surveillance camera; her then husband set it up to catch a burglar, he said. She called it an abuse of power because county employees had been used to install the equipment, but a police investigation cleared her husband of wrongdoing. (Internationally, one notable standout was an escapade in Taiwan, where tapes of politician Chu Mei-feng having sex with a married lover were leaked in 2001. She apologized and resigned.)

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Comments

[AnneOlivia]

2 words for you: no penises.

duh.

[rbspickles]

Because men often time use sex as a power tool and women use it as a show of affection (mostly). Men are intimidated by a woman's sexual strength and it turns them on to have them demean themselves for them.

[RickO]

I think most scandals tend to avoid them.

[wadenelson1]

It's not WHY they avoid sex scandals anyone is interested in. It's HOW.

[Abroad]

I guess most powerful women avoid sex scandals the same way most powerful men do: by being discrete.

[Mort]

Have you seen most of the powerful women? Who would want to have a scandalous affair with Martha Stewart?

[lenalee]

I dunno. I think most women tend to take better care of themselves for longer than most men in the looks department. Even the cream of the crop at 50 seems to be fat, balding males (often sloppy as hell) with wives who are still have it all together even if they do have a few wrinkles.

Then again we as a society value the young hot female as the only look for women while older men are still considered handsome so what do I know.

[PioneerKing]

One theory is that for many of these women the power is the aphrodisiac and that many men are intimidated by the power. The other theory is that these women are frigid.

[Kurukulla]

Maybe women know better than to cheat. My wife does.

[riverhouse]

They aren't complete dirtbags?

[research]

Women are sneakier?

[Trittydi]

No testosterone?

*

[WilliePilgrim]

Ha! Barbara Chenowith. I'd love to see what her genetic expression along the X Y spectrum is...what a silly person. She is the repersentative who was adamantly against diverting water from her constituent farmers and their wastefull use of the river which would have saved genetic lineages of some of the Columbia's salmon runs sayiing " surely you don't think that a god capable of all creation isn't producing new species for every one that is lost." And you know she got elected! Maybe it's time to have an intelligence test before we allow people to express their right to vote.

[amanda85]

"Why Powerful Women (Mostly) Avoid Sex Scandals"

DUH!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[NoSillyName]

Um, women aren't usually as driven as men, perhaps due to lower testosterone levels and lack of external genitalia? Or, most women want more out of relationships than just getting off? Or maybe, women aren't as willing to risk everything for a casual fling? Or, maybe women are more careful and discrete? I'm sure there are many reasons.

Unfortunately, many females in the younger generations seem to be trying to ape the apish behavior of their male counterparts. So-called "hooking up" is somewhat similar to the "free love" of an earlier generation which the males enjoyed, but most females either had to try turning off their emotions or risk being hurt. If the behavior of today's females is what the struggle for equality was all about, I am deeply saddened.