WaPo Columnist: Kamala Harris’ ‘Love Life’ Should Be Off Limits

If you’ve been paying attention to the hype given to possible Democratic challengers to President Donald Trump, you’ve probably heard the name of Senator Kamala Harris uttered with awe and reverence.  Recently, however, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown admitted he “dated” her some years ago.  Brown was married at the time, so “dated” might not be the right word. At least, that’s probably not how his wife would’ve described their dalliance.  Brown also said he “may have” advance her career in some way.

I think we can all agree that this is bad for several reasons, the most obvious being that:

1. People should not be given occupational favors for a sexual or romantic relationship.
2. People should not use the idea of occupational advancement to lure less powerful people into bed.
3. Adultery isn’t cool.

But a recent Washington Post column had the coldest “hot take” I’ve ever seen about this issue.  Style columnist Monica Hess wrote:

Is this just politics as usual? Is this just politics for women? Politics for men and women who knew Willie Brown — whose career was dogged by accusations of patronage?

Plenty of us have, after all, spent an awful lot of time discussing Bill Clinton’s willie and Anthony Weiner’s wiener: it’s not that we don’t talk about the sexual predilections of male candidates.

But we do talk about them in a different way. We talk about men abusing power. We talk about women not even deserving power. The distinction matters, because the conversation isn’t really about sex, it’s about legitimacy. It’s about who we think has earned the right to be successful, and what criteria we’ll invent, and who we’ll apply it to.

“Maybe we should stop accusing women of ‘sleeping their way’ to the top,” Erin Gloria Ryan wrote in the Daily Beast in 2017. “Maybe because men have been the ones sleeping women to the middle and bottom.”

Um…  Jazz Shaw nicely wraps up her argument, or at least attempts to:

In other words, talking about a male politician’s affairs is fair game because it gives us a chance to ask whether or not they are abusing their power. Stories about the love lives of female candidates, however, do nothing but reinforce gender stereotypes and needlessly tarnish their reputations… or something.

Right.  That’s about as much clarity as I was over her piece.  After the Brett Kavanaugh debacle — and it was, truly, a debacle — I can’t believe the Washington Post had the temerity to publish this hypocritical drivel.

Please.

At least pretend like you’re trying to be fair.

Image Credit: InSapphoWeTrust on Flickr

Hat Tip: Hot Air