New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is the last data point I need on my mental graph of 1)men, 2)women, 3)keeping it in their pants, and 4)keeping our pants on. I'm ready to claim moral superiority, or at least the high ground on smarts. Women are either less willing to cheat on their spouse, abuse young interns and cross the double-yellow line of sexual indiscretion, or we're much better at hiding it.
Look at the modern-history laundry list: former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, Bill Clinton, Congressmen Henry Hyde, Bob Livingston, David Vitter, Mark Foley, Bill Thomas, Bob Barr, Senators Gary Hart and Larry Craig. Must I go on? Shall we go further back in history? If we made this into a parlor game for coming up with politicians' sexual sleaziness, crimes and misdemeanors it could go on all night, and which women would be on the list? If you said, Congresswomen Helen Chenoweth (deceased) and Sue Myrick had adulterous affairs, you'd win the prize.
Granted, the Congress and state houses are predominantly male. Even so, the percentage of women who have ruined their political reputation for the sake of bodily delights is pretty small compared to men. So what's going on?
Well, Gloria Steinem has said, "Women are not more moral than men. We are only uncorrupted by power." Perhaps, or at least we don't equate power with sexual liaisons. The psychology professor Alice Eagly found that women were more likely than men to support morally traditional policies. A 1999 study of men and women in the U.S. Coast Guard found a statistically significant difference showing women's greater moral judgment. Then again, as Carol Gilligan would point out, "women impose a distinctive construction on moral problems." Well, for sure, and the bottom line is we don't have a good answer on whether women are more moral than men -- especially when it comes to indiscriminate sex acts.
Without hard evidence, I'm going to wade out of the morality question, and weigh in on the side of women being not only smarter, but clearer about our priorities. It's taken us a long time to get the small amount of political power that we have. We're not going to be so frivolous, careless of the public trust or stupid enough to blow our opportunity for a chance encounter of the sexual kind. We'll leave that to Spitzer and his ilk.
AND NOW YOU KNOW WHY SENATOR OBAMA "MUST" WIN. TO SAVE WHAT'S LEFT OF "SANITY" IN THE USA.
here is a hint--using gender as your discriminatory filter for selecting people for anything beyond sexual coupling is not a good idea...
Women don't have to pay for sex, they are also careful not to get caught as they have more to lose.
It is a HUMAN problem.
One gender does not have the moral authority over the other on this topic. Both men and women cheat on their spouses and at the same rates. Just because its hidden, does not mean its not there.
It doesn't work in reverse for females. Unless we are rich, we are undesirable after menopause. Women don't have the same opportunities to cheat.
Broad generalizations: Men are more concerned with a mate's physical attractiveness than women are. Women may like to fool around with attractive men, but we marry for other reasons, many having to do with fatherhood potential.
Supposedly, men think about sex every sixty seconds or so, while women think about it a few times a day. I think for men, it is all about sex. They seek power and money as a means of getting sex.
I don't believe you can dismiss the possibility, out of hand.
Exactly--that's the only explanation possible. Otherwise, female politicians would be teaching the men a thing or two about wild behavior. After all, outside of politics, women are much more aggressive sexually than men. Ordinarily, women stalk, harass, rape, and engage in gang fights at ten times the rate of men.
Glad to hear women are able to curb their naturally aggressive and horny impulses once they've gained some power. I suppose that's the answer to our nation's problems in these areas--give women power, and we'll see a huge dip in sexually aggressive behavior.
I'm so glad you addressed this issue, since it's always cause for astonishment when women don't behave in sexually aggressive ways. Unprecedented, really. It's so very contrary to what we normally observe as to cry out for an explanation. Thanks for bringing us several steps closer to understanding this bizarre, history-making situation, one that so boldly challenges everything we thought we knew about men vs. women.
Wow, what an incredibly unintellectual insight. To bad you didnt have any "hard evidence" to back your sexist perogative. This post definitely deserves to be nominated for the "MOST SEXIST POST" award for 2008. It could win.
With whom are all these fidelity-challenged men fornicating?
Single women? Other men? Kids and critters?
Jeeze, Robin. Do some homework.