Even though this is technically yesterday’s quote of the day (which I failed to post because I was fulfilling my religious obligation to eat enough for three and drink midday—thank you, Shavuot, Torah is the giver of many gifts) the column contains timeless wisdom from the modern era’s Mama-feminist Maureen Dowd.
Speculating on why men from Weiner to Schwarzenegger to Spitzer to Strauss-Kahn have derailed their lives for sexual connection, Dowd wrote: “Maybe feminists have learned that male development stops at power.”
Sometimes powerful men are secretly insecure, needing constant reassurance about how important and attractive they are. The waxed bare-chested picture Weiner sent to Meagan could have been captioned: “Geek who buffed up.” As Orwell noted: “Any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.”
Often powerful men crave more than love and admiration from The Good Wife. Sometimes they want risk, even danger. Sometimes they’re turned on by a power differential. They adore a fan reaction like the one from Lisa Weiss, the Vegas blackjack dealer, who flirted with Weiner on Facebook: “you are sooo awesome when you yell at those fox news” pundits, and “I bet you have so many chicks after you! you are our liberal stud.”
In her book, Elizabeth Edwards wrote that she would have bet her big house that her husband would not fall for a cheesy line like the one Rielle Hunter tossed at him: “You are so hot.”
But clichés work.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.