When a Republican congresswoman was caught groping her date in a Denver theater, the media made sure we knew about it. Within hours, corporate cable channels had wall-to-wall coverage of Lauren Boebert’s hanky-panky, including grainy video footage that played on a loop.
What followed was a familiar story: when someone on the right falls short of the mark, the media pounces. When someone on the left does the same or worse, that same media remains silent, changes the subject, or — the first two tactics having failed — decries the “politics of personal destruction.”
Writing in Salon this week, Amanda Marcotte (one of the founders of the liberal feminist blogosphere) goes beyond mocking Boebert’s lack of propriety. Marcotte argues the congresswoman’s pro-life convictions and early marriage are directly responsible for her lapse in judgment during the production of “Beetlejuice: The Musical.”
Marcotte reminds us of what is widely known: Boebert got pregnant at 16 and chose to keep her baby and marry the father. The couple later divorced. Earlier this year, the congresswoman became a grandmother at 36.
It’s gross watching a 36-year-old member of Congress act like a horny teenager, of course. But also, it’s not the biggest surprise. That’s another downside the ‘just get married’ crowd doesn’t want to acknowledge: Robbing people of their youth tends to breed a desire to make up for lost time. There’s a sexist myth that only men want to sow wild oats, but of course, women also have sexual
