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The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - Posts
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A correspondent — my former University of Virginia law student Chris Guhin — e-mails to report this: I'm ... an avid reader of XX Factor on Slate, as well as someone who was for a while mystified by the lack of general media attention on the "things ... Read More...
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I always thought pedophiles became priests (and ministers and rabbis and teachers and scout leaders) so they could be around kids. So maybe Spitzer got into his line of work that same way? For that and whatever 12 other reasons he and his (hopefully grandfatherly) Read More...
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It does make one wonder, what is " not safe " to a person who goes to hotels and has sex with strangers for money? I assumed "Kristen" was talking about not using a condom or inserting things into places that would cause physical damage, but perhaps I'm Read More...
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Well, all gerbils aside, there are several thorny issues here. A male Slate contributor, who asked to remain nameless, wanted XX Factor to address whether it’s worse if your husband cheats with a prostitute or a nonprostitute. I’m not sure that question Read More...
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Meghan : And/but. I'm with you that what we're talking about here is darker and deeper than any sea dingle . So I retract my earlier query about Spitzer's rationality, since clearly "reason" is not what's at issue. And I agree that someone's private sexual Read More...
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Meghan , I love that premise for a novel. Sudhir Venkatesh is about to publish a great piece in Slate laying out the different layers of the New York sex trade, which he has studied as a sociologist at Columbia. (I"ll post the link when it appears.) For Read More...
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Ellen , you hit the nail on the head, like any good therapist ought to. Clearly, Spitzer liked hiring prostitutes, for whatever reason. Maybe it was that he couldn't find a sex partner who'd do what he wanted to do, or maybe it was that he liked the power Read More...
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Rosa and friends, I'm not a shrink, but I love to play Monday-morning therapist as much as the next guy. I think what you are forgetting or overlooking is that there is an element of dysfunction or rebellion or self-destruction or blind hubris or whatever Read More...
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Re: Our speculation on what Spitzer was thinking. The New York Times has a story today about how Spitzer as governor supported sex-crime legislation to toughen penalties for the men patronizing prostitutes, a bill he signed, we now know, while he was Read More...
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Judith , I also shared Dahlia's initial reaction—Spitzer's the governor of New York, and he can't find anyone willing to sleep with him for free ? I mean, fine, maybe he thought he was buying discretion by paying a prostitute so much money for sex. But Read More...
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Diligent reader Edouard Markson found a link to the exchanges I summarized in my post this morning. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20080310spitzer-complaint.pdf He also comments: "The relevant section begins on the bottom of page 26. Read More...
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Didn't make it any easier for them to get it, or at least to get away with it. Remember: powerful people (and I take the Fraysters point that it isn't just automatically men) can't just sleep with anyone they please, because the average potential partner Read More...
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Welcome to XX Factor Judith , and thanks for your thoughtful post. My only quibble is with the assumption that Spitzer somehow had to pay for sex (pathetic), which then unspools the freight train of humiliations you’ve just described. Is it really all Read More...
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Silda didn't listen to us, did she? But the gay-American-luv-guv's ex, Dana McGreevey, explained on MSNBC that wives don't stand up there for their husbands; they stand up there for their kids. My first thought was oh, great modeling on how to be a doormat. Read More...
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In defense of Spitzer, I have to say that the great-man-abusing-power narrative does not seem apt in his case. In fact, it seems rather out-of-date. If you read the wiretaps closely, you'll discover that, as a consumer of sexual services, Spitzer was Read More...
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I'm with you, Melinda, and all the other Silda sympathizers. And while I don't think it's going to work, I can appreciate why she wouldn't want her husband to resign, as the NYT reports. If he goes, that's it for the legacy they wanted for themselves, Read More...
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On The Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart showed footage of a few of Eliot Spitzer's predecessors in the "Parade of Shame,'' who, as he said, were "all following the one simple rule of public humiliation: Bring a date.'' Then Samantha Bee gave us the Read More...
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