Anthony Weiner Is Not Sexist

When scandals like Weinergate befall prominent men, some feminist commentators seek to turn the issue into a crusade against misogyny.  All sorts of conclusions are drawn about the perpetrator’s latent chauvinism and “attitude towards women”.  But this analysis is misguided, and here’s why.

I can’t say conclusively whether or not Anthony Wiener is sexist, but his policies suggest that he’s fairly progressive on issues of gender equity, and Weinergate doesn’t offer any evidence to suggest that this isn’t the case.  The only thing Weinergate tells us about Weiner’s “attitude” towards women is that he finds them sexually attractive.  For all we know, if Weiner had been a gay man, he’d have been flirting with young men on twitter (although he probably would have been much more careful to avoid getting caught given the societal penalty that comes with being outed as a gay man).  In fact, in recent years, several prominent statesmen have been found to have carried on affairs with other men while in office.  One of these statesmen, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey was married at the time.  Yet no one ever drew any conclusions about Jim McGreevev’s or Mark Foley’s “attitude” toward the young men they pursued for sexual gratification.

The Weinergate scandal and others like it are certainly indicative of the societal asymmetries that exist between men and women.  For example, the fact that almost all these scandals involve powerful men and not powerful women reflects the fact that the vast majority of high-level political posts are occupied by men.  It also reflects the amount of leeway afforded to powerful men in terms of their interactions with the opposite sex.  A female congressmen wouldn’t dream of doing what Weiner did for fear of being depicted as a slut and having the reputation of her entire family called into question.  Indeed, female congresswomen have drawn scandal for much lesser infractions, and often for a successful woman, just being young and attractive is enough for the public and the media to conclude that you must be up to something unbecoming.

Moreover, I’ve always found it interesting that men who are wealthy or successful can attract the sexual attention of young women well into their 50’s, whereas a woman sees her stock begin to plummet at a much earlier stage.  This says something about the disparate ways in which we conceive of male and female beauty, and the way that a woman’s value is often determined by what she can offer physically.  But these are all problems with society, not Anthony Weiner.  If you look at the content of the twitter exchanges with these women, there is nothing sexist or otherwise inappropriate about them (apart from the fact he was cheating on his wife).  All the exchanges appeared to be consensual, none of the women were minors, and none of the comments were lewd or aggressive (at least none that I’ve read).

I suspect that a lot of the indignation from feminist bloggers is really just their attempt to express solidarity with Weiner’s betrayed wife.  And I have no problem with that.  I consider myself a feminist, but I admit that when I hear of a woman cheating on her husband, my reaction is more visceral than when it’s the other way around.  That’s because I can identify more strongly with the pain that a man would experience in this situation.  It’s certainly not because I think that women who cheat on men are pigs, who harbour bigoted views toward the male sex.

So, while the Weinergate scandal taught us a lot about Anthony Weiner, it didn’t reveal him to be a sexist.  Unless by “sexist” you mean “one who makes, does, or practices sex”, in which case, you’d probably be right.