- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Glad I'm not a Kennedy #3249

No way. Terminated.

Did Maria say "I'll be back"? Be back... for the Mansion, the beach house, the yacht, the cigars...

BBC: He had long had a reputation as a womaniser but this affair is tawdry - the fact that his mistress continued to work in the Schwarzenegger household up to January of this year - without his wife knowing what happened.

Mr Schwarzenegger's legacy was already in serious question, thanks to the fallout from his decision (in his final hours in office) to commute a 16-year prison sentence for manslaughter to seven years for the son of a close friend. Last week the San Diego District Attorney filed papers to void the commutation. The scandals swirling around Mr Schwarzenegger must surely kill any chances of a future life in public service. But Hollywood may be more forgiving.


Like totally forgiving, dude. He's probably on the lot running through his leading man script already. A single page of two and three word lines interspersed with [then picks up gun and mounts motorcycle], [then punches alien/monster], [then stands in open space amid enemy gunfire and shoots a wide arc from both belt-fed machine guns into the masses of enemy soldiers without being hit] etc.

He'll have no problem. In large part because he's Arny the beloved movie hero, and also in part because the expectations of personal morality and behaviour from someone elected after everyone knows he is a steriod-munching sleazo was never going to be that high.

But it is a bad look, and how do you explain these things?

And what is it with female maids and staff that men on a certain ego-power trip think they are there to be preyed on? Schwarzenegger and Kerry's 2004 running mate (who admitted fathering a child to a staff member while his wife was dying of cancer) may not be the type of Dominique Strauss-Kahn predator accused of sexual assault, but they are heads of the same beast.

Do these middle-aged men think their years of privilege, their bank accounts and their elevated social status entitles them to rape the servant class at their pleasure? To take them as if they were a complimentary mint left on a hotel pillow. In this situation how are the staff to know who is famous and powerful and therefore entitled to grope and rape, and those who are not famous and powerful and therefore just common sex criminals? Of course there is no real difference whatsoever.In France the media and the law keep things secret as an elite agreement to preserve the privacy of the macho male politicians who control the system. Many other countries do much the same thing. NZ's record on supressing the names of those with a public profile charged with (and in some cases even after conviction on) sex crimes has been and continues to be a source of unease and mistrust.

Where would these men get such ideas? How does this happen? How do they seem to get away with it for so long? Often it is the wife (put in the ignominous position of publicly defending her husband) and often on the offensive against the other woman that makes this possible. Without their support the condemnation of the husband would be universal and the punishment harsh, but a loyal wife (such as Strauss-Kahn's) is often enough to get them off the hook.

In the olden days of yore polygamy was the norm and a high-ranking male may have taken several wives. Later on when Christians introduced monogamy the taking of mistresses became the alternative to multiple wives (although living as separate families because of the legal prohibition). The concept of multiple partners though remains intact - despite Christianity and increased media scrutiny. The other old practice of a ranking male raping his way through the female slave quarters is also evident however. I don't want to conflate the forced from the consensual here, but the opportunistic helping of oneself to one's presumed social and economic inferiors when no-one else is looking is very common.

1 Comments:

At 19/5/11 7:03 pm, Blogger frances jane said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlicWUDf5MM

 

Post a Comment

<< Home