By fitsnews – February 28, 2013We’re surprised it took this long but a female scribe in Washington, D.C. is finally debunking the “popular fiction” that female politicos use sex to advance their professional careers.
This “fiction” is a primary focus of House of Cards, a critically acclaimed Netflix original series about a conniving congressman who uses an ambitious young female reporter to advance his nefarious ends (as well as his sexual desires). In one scene, a veteran female reporter who uncovers their relationship empathizes with her younger colleague, saying “we’ve all done it.”
Not so says Marin Cogan of The New Republic, who not only rebukes this premise but goes a step further and places the blame for this perception almost exclusively on male shoulders.
“We have not ‘all done it …’” Cogan writes, referring to the House of Cards screenplay. “And yet, the reporter-seductress stereotype persists, in part because some men in Washington refuse to relinquish it.”
Wait … so women sleeping their way to the top in Washington is a male-created problem?
Cogan isn’t done with her dude-bashing …
“Studies suggest that men are more likely than women to interpret friendly interest as sexual attraction, and this is a constant hazard for women in the profession,” she writes.
Really?
“Tell that to the last woman who offered to suck my dick in exchange for a friendly story,” this website’s founding editor interjected.
Look, we don’t doubt that there are men in Washington who are absolute pigs – in addition to full-on fascists. And we don’t doubt that there are female reporters who have to put up with all sorts of bullshit and harassment from them. But to presume that men are unilaterally responsible – or even predominantly responsible – for the slew of unethical interaction between reporters and sources (or aspiring politicos and established ones) is ridiculous.
Seriously … in addition to the “negotiable virtue” of far too many professional women, does Cogan not believe women in power also leak stories to sexy male scribes in exchange for some of their “negotiable virtue?”
Personally we don’t give a rat’s ass if reporters bang their sources. In fact we know one prominent national reporter covering presidential politics in South Carolina who has banged practically every young Republican girl in the state.
And so what?
This is a marketplace of ideas, people – and we don’t begrudge people for doing what they have to do to get ahead in that marketplace (unless of course it involves wasting tax dollars). At the end of the day stories are either good (like this one) or they suck … whether anybody got sucked in the process is usually irrelevant.
As the editor of the sports website Deadspin once observed, “it’s all professional wrestling” anyway.
What we refuse to tolerate is any more of this sanctimonious, “woe are we” female victimization babble. Frankly, we have more respect for women who sleep their way to the top than women who bitch and moan about men being responsible for all their problems.
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