One Way Women Should Not Change How We Think About Power
young anthony weiner
Had you noticed? Today is the 51st anniversary of the U. S. Supreme Court Griswold v Connecticut decision legalizing birth control for married couples under the Constitutional principle of a right to privacy. Nah, probably not.
I was going to write a post about the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association’s (NFPRHA) dandy review of the history. They’ve also done a new poll showing for the umpteenth time that 98% of Americans use birth control at some time and huge majorities want it included in health care coverage for rich and poor alike. I was going to connect this with the chapter in No Excuses that in a nod to Virginia Woolf, I named “Secure £500 and a Womb of Your Own.” Because if women are able to earn their own money and own their sexual and reproductive lives, they have power. If they have neither, or only one of the two, they do not have power to determine their own lives.
But figure the odds that anyone is going to pay an iota of attention today to the Griswold anniversary or the new poll that also found voters angry about the Republicans’ attempts to defund Title X family planning services for low income women. Not when they have Weinergate. Talk about someone who has not just lost but thrown away his privacy!
We haven’t even had time to recover from learning Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child with his housekeeper when another politician bites the dust from his own sexual hubris. In the “Everybody Lies About Sex” category, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is today’s poster boy.
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Pathetic. What else can you say about Anthony Weiner?
Much as I dislike the New York Post, they won the headline competition today with this one: “Erections Have Consequences.”
Slate gets honorable mention with its slideshow chronicling all the other bad things that have happened to this former crusading goodie-goodie boy turned hapless penitent.
You have to laugh so you don’t cry when the actions of a politician who eloquently championed women’s reproductive rights and health care, as well as economic policies that help women get a fair shake, gets caught in his own tale (oh I do love a triple entendre).
The power tool for the “£500” chapter is “Carpe the Chaos.” Perhaps Weiner will find opportunity in the chaos he has created to demonstrate true redemption. Whether that must include resigning remains to be seen in how he comports himself in the next few days.
But this is for sure. Such an arrogant assumption of power as slinging one’s penis around on Twitter simply because you think you can do so with impunity is one power tool women should never emulate.
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.
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Gloria Feldt
Pathetic. What better word is there for Anthony Weiner?
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Gloria Feldt Much as I dislike the NY Post, they get my prize for best headline: Erections Have Consequences.
Monday at 11:56pm · LikeUnlike · 4 peopleLoading…Reply
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Madge Stein Woods Hubris.
Yesterday at 1:03am · LikeUnlikeReply
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Heather Davidson So disappointing.
Yesterday at 3:10am · LikeUnlikeReply
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Alida Brill how about “beyond the known universe of pathetic”…
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Eleanor J. Bader the word stupid also comes to mind!
Yesterday at 7:33am · LikeUnlikeReply
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Bonnie Marcus loser?
Yesterday at 8:09am · LikeUnlikeReply
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Celeste Pettijohn Juvenile works for me.
Yesterday at 10:23am · LikeUnlikeReply
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Donna Barbanell Dewberry and once again….these men in powerful places…………
Yesterday at 10:30am · LikeUnlikeReply
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Candy Feldt i’m so sick of these sleazy men.
Yesterday at 11:57am · LikeUnlikeReply
My own comments in response to Eli Pariser’s question about whether Weiner should resign:
Gloria Feldt He shouldn’t have to but he ought to. It would be best for himself and the issues he cares about if he would be a mensch–resign, repent, and reenter politics later. Men in power have to learn they can no longer get away with the sexual misbehavior they have always taken as their birthright. Those days are OVER.
(Michael Keischnick suggested this is a case for more women running for office.)
Gloria Feldt: Good “other hand” Michael. Not that women don’t have sexual indiscretions too, but we don’t have as much of that hubris, the sense of sexual entitlement that made Weiner think he could lie and get away with it. I agree with those who say the lying was worse than the sexting. That’s why I think he should put all of us out of our misery and resign.
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LeeAnn Mullen I’m so saddened by his bad decisions. I really liked his political viewpoints. :/
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Henry Jason I do not believe that he is relevant in politics anymore once he chose to lie. Victim of very poor choices.
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LeeAnn Mullen Agreed, Henry. What a waste.
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Dana Marie Kennedy another man bites the dust by overexposure…..sorry have to find a little humor I was a fan, another man lets me down.
Monday at 11:26pm · LikeUnlike · 1 personSuzette Sommer likes this.Reply
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Darla Engle Wallace I would say weiner about says it all!!
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Dana Marie Kennedy @henry, please- not as often as men and give me a high profile woman that has done this type of behavior?
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Michelle Clare Melchiorre Human… that is a word for him.
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Suzette Sommer
May I rant about this? People are being so, uh… polite!
I don’t give a shit about “morals and family values.” I am not religious, and I am fine with behavior that some say is banned by the Bible, ETC. What I DEMAND is DIGNITY by my god da…mned elected representatives, who are conducting the SERIOUS BUSINESS of my country!
What the hell is wrong with these people that they have totally lost sight of that??
They are in the public eye. They chose that, NOT to be stupid reality TV stars, but to lead this COUNTRY.
It is a responsibility! They are handling enormous decisions, which are literally life and death for millions of people!
Do they think I deserve a jackass web cam dick thrower in that job?? Or, some moron who molests pages, or picks up strangers in bathrooms, or gets blow jobs in the Oval Office, or has prostitutes put diapers on him, or knocks up the maid, or screws around on his cancer-suffering wife, or runs off to Argentina with his latest hottie????
WTF is WRONG with these people!!! Narcissists!!!!
They think they can do no wrong, they feel entitled to the sexual favors, they think they can talk their way out of it!
Well, I have had it.
Our country is in DEEP SHIT and I want SERIOUS PEOPLE who ae committed to focusing on solving problems, creating jobs, prosecuting thieving bankers and cutting back no-bid military contractors, and saving the environment and Medicare.
FOR STARTERS!
I do not need some pathetic ugly little wanker staring at his Twitter account, thinking about how he is going to web-impress another college coed during the discussions!
Tolerance Zone GONE. Get the hell OUT.
Let it be a warning to the rest:
GET YOUR SORRY ASS TO WORK!!
ALL of them need to be honest, and do their jobs with dignity!
For cryin out loud! This is not MTV, people!
This is the CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Holy shit.
If that means SO LITTLE to Rep, Weiner, and any other tasteless, classless piece of crap who managed to get elected, that they have zero honor for the office, they can get the hell out. I liked Bill Clinton’s work, but he lost me when he had to have a blow job in the Oval Office.
NONE of them are irreplaceable, even though CLEARLY a ton of them think they are!
If they cannot keep their minds on OUR BUSINESS and take their obligations seriously, when it comes to sex, what the hell else other “community standards” are they willing to ignore??
You better damn well understand that a man who is fixated on his own cock the way some of these men are, are also wrongly fixated on other “pleasures” in life, primarily MONEY.
They are proving them undeserving of the public TRUST.
They are proving themselves self-indulgent and selfish and likely to lie about a lot more than mere sex.See More
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Jon Bresler the guy is a dick
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Gloria Nelson Testosterone poisoning. They must put it in the food in D.C.