The Double Standard

Florida jogger stun-gunned
and arrested for wearing
only a pair of goggles.

We all know there has long been a double standard when it comes to males and females. You remember, of course, that women were not allowed to vote, were wards of their husbands, were not permitted to sue for loss of consortium as men were, even now do not get equal pay for equal work, and so on and on. It has always been so. But now, in South Carolina, there is what I think is a truly strange example of this type of discrimination. You may know that Nikki Haley is a Republican candidate for Governor of that state. There are apparently other Republican candidates as well. Supporters of one of these other candidates have resorted to what has to be regarded as an unusual strategy to attack Haley, two of them have signed affidavits to the effect they have had affairs with her. One of them I guess was simply supposedly an all-night stand, the other a more serious, longer lasting affair. Haley, of course, who is married, denies either of these claims is true. I suspect they are not true as I know Republicans have no trouble in making up outrageous lies to get their way. But what a pair of great guys, at best score and tell, at worst disgusting liars. But what I find most interesting about this is so-what? What if it is true she had a couple of extra-marital affairs? Would that somehow have something to do with whether or not she would be a good Governor? Think about it, what would happen if two women signed affidavits claiming affairs with a male candidate for Governor? First of all, that is not at all likely to happen. If it did strangely happen it probably would only result in the candidate being even more highly regarded. There is no male equivalent for “slut” or “whore,” at least not that you ever really hear. This is a true example of the double standard at work. Does it mean that any woman running for office has to be considered a virgin, or having not had any sexual experience prior to running for office? If so, is this the same standard that should be applied to male candidates? And how would we ever know, especially when it is a case of he-said, she-said. This is simply ridiculous, and you can thank Republicans for opening up this Pandora’s Box when they savagely attacked Bill Clinton (you notice that he survived a real scandal that was much worse than these accusations). Prior to what they tried to do to Clinton a candidate’s private life was that, private. John Kennedy, for example, was a far worse offender than Clinton, many people were aware of it, but at that time it was not regarded as fair game for politics. This preoccupation with sex, Gay and extra-curricular, is a peculiarly American thing, in Europe it is basically expected to occur. Notice also that Meg Whitman has been labeled a whore by someone in Brown’s campaign, still another example of this insidious business. I would never vote for either of these women, not because of their sex lives, but because they are Republicans. Anyway, now that Republicans have let this cat out of the bag I doubt it will cease anytime soon. Perhaps we could establish standards of promiscuity, two or three instances are okay but five disqualify you. Maybe men could be allowed more than women. Perhaps we should insist that every candidate be a virgin (that would eliminate a lot of difficulty). If O’Donnell were to get elected and get her way I guess even masturbation would disqualify one from holding office. The political system in this country has become nothing more than a bad joke, childish, ridiculous, stupid, and virtually meaningless.

Now on to the situation in the Middle East, where an Israeli MP, Aryeh Eldad, has called for the assassination of Ahmadinejad when he visits Lebanon. He has urged Israeli soldiers to do everything they can to kill him, insisting he should not be allowed to leave Lebanon alive. What do you suppose would happen if Putin were to visit Cuba and one of our Congresspersons insisted we should try to kill him? Eldad has also said that his other time is spent in trying to prevent a Palestinian state. Does this sound to you like the behavior of someone who is interested in peace? And speaking of that, it appears that Netanyahu has said if the Palestinians would recognize Israeli as a Jewish state, he would be willing to talk peace. The Palestinians have said they would consider Israel anything it wants them to if they would agree to return to the 1967 borders. What do you think will happen? Nothing, of course, Israel does not want peace, certainly not badly enough to give up all that stolen Palestinian land and water. The whole negotiation business is basically little more than a charade. Even the idea that the U.S. could be an objective broker between the two sides is absurd, the U.S. has almost always supported Israel no matter how outrageous and criminal their behavior.

I am a true believer when it comes to free speech and its protection. But it seems to me there might be some limits placed on it in certain instances. I mean, you already are not allowed to yell “fire” in a crowded building. But what about this recent Supreme Court decision about this insane religious group that goes to funerals holding signs that say more soldiers should be killed, it’s all because of homosexuality, and so on, truly vile, hateful, disgusting, and offensive speech. I agree that offensive speech should be protected. If someone says something of substance that is at least reasonable but offensive, that is one thing, but how about this case where the speech is not only offensive but absolutely ridiculous. Could there not be a category of unprotected speech when it is both offensive and ridiculous? I think a lot of so-called hate speech might well fall into this category as well.

LKBIQ:
Loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.
Jane Austen

TILT:
The vast majority of calico cats are female.