Scandalous Women?

September 5, 2007 12:33 PM

Have there been any modern sex scandals with female politicians at the forefront?

Male politicians get all the fun. Maxim had to dredge up Catherine the Great, which even they admit was a myth. Even if women are 10% of the pols, they should be 10% of the scandals. So anyone have any good dirt on women in the Power Position?

True feminists understand women can be villainesses as well as heroines.

posted by BlackRose to society & culture (19 comments total)

Helen Chenoweth.
posted by The World Famous at 12:38 PM on September 5, 2007

And there are some tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist types who believe that a recent first lady was having an affair with a certain White House Deputy Counsel who had been her partner at a law firm. But those allegations have largely been forgotten, and have never really been alleged concretely by anyone with credibility, so I would assume that they're not true.

Nevertheless, an alleged sex scandal is still a sex scandal, right?
posted by The World Famous at 12:44 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Edwina Currie.
posted by genghis at 12:49 PM on September 5, 2007

The former leader of the Australian Democrats, Cheryl Kernot, was found to have had a five-year affair with Gareth Evans, former Foreign Minister. While the affair was going on, Kernot defected to Evans' party, the Australian Labor Party and resigned leadership of the Dems. It was the height of scandal when it came to light in 2002.
posted by goo at 12:51 PM on September 5, 2007

Canadian Member of Parliament Belinda Stronach is alleged to have a weakness for hunky hockey players and Bill Clinton. Not sure it's a bona fide scandal, though --- more a subject of gossip.
posted by jayder at 12:58 PM on September 5, 2007

Not really a scandal, since neither of these two are married or picking up undercover cops in a bathroom, but Condi Rice has been linked with Canadian foreign minister Peter Mackay.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 1:06 PM on September 5, 2007

Even if women are 10% of the pols, they should be 10% of the scandals

Sex scandals? That would assume women participate in scandal worthy sex-capades exactly as often as men.

While certainly some women are willing to risk their job, their family or their public image for sex, far more men are willing to do the same.

This is especially true in high power/authority situations where men have unusually high levels of sexual opportunity compared to their less successful peers, but a woman's level of sexual opportunity isn't increased as radically (and also due to the much larger baseline level of sexual opportunity, moderate increasing of a woman's level of sexual opportunity is a far less influential factor on average in her sexual activities then it has proven to be in a man's sexual activities).
posted by Jezztek at 1:16 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

A few years ago there was a sex tape scandal involving Taiwanese politician Chu Mei-feng.
posted by iconomy at 1:17 PM on September 5, 2007

It might stretch the definition of both "modern" and "politician," but there's Edwina Mountbatten, who may or may not have gotten it on with Nehru, among other famous people. She successfully sued a newspaper for libel when it claimed that she'd had an affair with Paul Robeson, which I guess qualifies as a sex scandal.
posted by craichead at 1:32 PM on September 5, 2007

Jezztek is right. It may be politically incorrect, but generally speaking, women have much lower libidos than men. Then there's also the age problem. By the time you are successful enough in politics for your sex life to make the news, you are probably mid 50s or older. Older and more powerful men are highly attractive to nubile young women. Older and more powerful women are not highly attractive to gorgeous young men.
posted by happyturtle at 1:49 PM on September 5, 2007

Richmond (Virginia) City councilwoman Reva Trammell was embroiled in quite the scandal a few years ago. This summary is outrageous and biased, but it gets to the heart of the matter; she was accused of having sex with city police officers and ordering them around in violation of the city charter. The charges against her were ultimately dismissed, and she reclaimed her council seat in the election last year.
posted by junkbox at 1:50 PM on September 5, 2007

Even if women are 10% of the pols, they should be 10% of the scandals.

That's not true. Thats like saing they should also get 10% of the testicular cancer. Women's needs, motives, and incentives for cheating are very different from men's. In the context of political life and risk-taking I wouldnt be surprised if women were more conservative than in non-public life.
posted by damn dirty ape at 2:38 PM on September 5, 2007

Also its worth mentioning that the market for young women looking to sleep with older more powerful men is pretty big, the market for men looking to sleep with older powerful women is probably not nearly as big.
posted by damn dirty ape at 2:42 PM on September 5, 2007

This is especially true in high power/authority situations where men have unusually high levels of sexual opportunity compared to their less successful peers, but a woman's level of sexual opportunity isn't increased as radically...

Also its worth mentioning that the market for young women looking to sleep with older more powerful men is pretty big, the market for men looking to sleep with older powerful women is probably not nearly as big.

These two comments are right on the money.
posted by Rock Steady at 3:18 PM on September 5, 2007

It may be politically incorrect, but generally speaking, women have much lower libidos than men.

I feel sorry for you that you know sexually repressed women. Because I've never found that to be true, and I've talked to a lot of women about sex.
posted by agregoli at 3:18 PM on September 5, 2007

There is the case of Nevada State Controller Kathy Augustine. Granted, it's more a "Law And Order" type story than a sex scandal, with the ethically-challenged woman politician as, ultimately, the victim.
posted by Robert Angelo at 4:07 PM on September 5, 2007

Older and more powerful men are highly attractive to nubile young women. Older and more powerful women are not highly attractive to gorgeous young men.

Um, a number of the scandals in the linked article were about M/M "relationships". Are gorgeous young men more attracted to powerful older men than to powerful older women? Are you aware that one third of women ages 40-69 are dating men 10 or more years younger? You don't need the older/younger, or even male/female dynamic to have a scandal anyway, so your argument is strange to begin with.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:04 PM on September 5, 2007

Older and more powerful men are highly attractive to nubile young women. Older and more powerful women are not highly attractive to gorgeous young men.

Along with what oneirodynia said, this also doesn't work in the face of female teacher to male student scandals. Apparently they're quite attractive to young men (and everyone else).
posted by birdie birdington at 5:12 PM on September 5, 2007

Maybe the women just aren't getting caught. And maybe that has something to do with people not caring about catching them.
posted by The World Famous at 5:12 PM on September 5, 2007