Spitzer scandal symptomatic of larger social

By:

Posted: 3/27/08

Last week's op-ed about "Kristen," the R&B singer and sex worker made infamous by a high-profile tryst with a politician ("Media rewards women for taking off their clothes") was a misogynistic diatribe under the guise of a moral treatise.

I am sick of hearing about how women are "taking advantage" of the system by "using their bodies" as currency in the world of fame. Do we really think it was "Kristen" who started this story? Do we really think that she wanted the world to know that she was a "hooker" (a term so blatantly pejorative that I can't even begin to understand why it would be used seriously), let alone that she
was involved with a high-profile politician?

Yes, she has benefited in ways that are at times ridiculous, but she would not be getting any attention if the media and the public didn't have some sick interest in knowing how well she can sing. Don't blame her. Blame the larger social idea that a woman's importance can be narrowed down to her sex organs. People constantly complain about Paris Hilton, but they still watch her movies, buy her album and sit anxiously awaiting her latest scandal while wondering what on earth is wrong with young women today. It's absurd.

Yes, I agree that a woman should be less inclined to rely on her body to make a name for herself, but maybe we as a society should stop openly embracing such behavior.

Eliot Spitzer should be the one answering for this. He paid a woman for sex. He broke the law. It's not Kristen's fault that the media chose to focus on her rather than a colossally hypocritical and grossly inconsiderate politician who abused his position of power to exploit others and flagrantly commit a crime.

Let's focus on the real problem here. It's not these women who are the issue; it's our obsession as a culture with the objectification of women and our systematic oppression of women who try to be famous for something other than a sex scandal. There's a very good reason that most people could tell you what color Lindsay Lohan's hair is this week, but couldn't even tell you what country Aung San Suu Kyi is from. It's because Rupert Murdoch isn't profiting from the latter. Think about it.

Alyssa Hammons
Junior,
International Relations