This is a secondary quotation, which is/ought to be frowned on, but anyway, I'd rather link to the feminist blog:
When politicians are caught cheating, I'd wish they'd leave their wives in the green room while they address the press. You're in the dog house, and it should look that way. Those "stand by your man" visuals are tired and demeaning.
I couldn't agree more. It seems to me that you'd only be able to stand by your husband in that circumstance if you A) were a very, very strong woman; B) didn't love him; C) it wasn't a shock; or D) his career comes before your relationship. And most of those are just problems.
This reminds me of Aristotle's beautiful passage on faithfulness:
Now a virtuous wife is best honored when she sees that her husband is faithful to her, and has no preference for another woman; but before all others loves and trusts her and holds her as his own. And so much the more will the woman seek to be what he accounts her. If she perceives that her husband's affection for her is faithful and righteous, she too will be faithful and righteous towards him. Therefore it befits not a man of sound mind to bestow his person promiscuously, or have random intercourse with women; for otherwise the base-born will share in the rights of his lawful children, and his wife will be robbed of her honor due, and shame be attached to his sons.And it is fitting that he should approach his wife in honor, full of self-restraint and awe; and in his conversation with her, should use only the words of a right-minded man, suggesting only such acts as are themselves lawful and honorable.
2 comments:
Frankincense (though I still protest at that name, I'm not sure what other one to use...) and I were just talking about this very subject this morning. It made us both late, actually. But we agree completely.
Quoth Frankincense: "I'm more liberated than all these women!"
As Myrrh already said, I completely agree. But why would not loving the cheater make a woman stand up with him publicly? Seems to me that would be all the more reason to let him fight it out on his own.
Of course, in the current case, it's not even just cheating. It's possible use of public funds in order to do something illegal, as well as immoral. But the fact is that it affects the wife most--he's offending society by breaking the law, but he's tearing her life apart and publicly humiliating her.
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