"Conan the Vulgarian", from the author of BACKLASH and STIFFED

[Paragon]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-faludi5oct05,1,7785362.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
(registration req'd)

...According to the article, after Schwarzenegger had bedded the woman, he picked up a phone and, claiming he was dialing his lawyer to reschedule an appointment, asked her to take the receiver. It turned out the number he dialed was her husband's, and while she held the phone, Schwarzenegger yelled into it these words, cleaned up by The Times' censors: "I just her! I just her!" As Tina Turner would say, what's love got to do with it?

A Schwarzenegger spokesman told The Times that the episode with Peters and his wife was just a case of "locker room humor." Which actually explains a good deal of Schwarzenegger's appeal to male voters. He comes out of the testosterone-ruled world of weight rooms and action movies, where women are the designated observers and adorners, and where men find their place in the wolf pack through a well-established ordeal of hazing and humiliation.

The men who don't make it to the top in that world still have the compensation of identifying with the one man who does, as long as they don't identify with any of the women, as long as they don't "say nothing." They still belong to the pack, by virtue of being male.

No matter how much sand gets kicked in their face, they still can fantasize that one day they, too, like Charles Atlas, will do enough leg lifts to rise in the ranks. At a time of deep economic and international insecurity, the easy power of the bully boy is a siren call to the American male populace, as evidenced by President Bush's continuing allure to the very men whose interests are least served by his domestic and foreign policies. The locker room game works as long as only men get to play, and only as long as they agree to play by certain rules. One rule is that sensuality is verboten, but aggressive jocularity is not. Humiliating women in a "playful" way can signal a powerful rejection of "the feminine" and a powerful reinforcement of male bonding...

[lolly]

1. Faludi Hits it Right On

Nobody--at least no red-blooded Amurican male type--wants to admit to not being on Arnold's team, cause then you're a wimp! Lots of vicarious machismo going on here.

Even with wingnut women---many of whom are more vicious than the men. They want to prove they're not weak and silly like "other women."

This would go a long way towards explaining why Gangbang's "antics" are of no consequence, while Clinton's were inexcusable.

Also--look at the differences in their wives.
Maria--an anorexic little woman--once, somewhat independent with her journalism career, but now really nothing but her husband's emaciated shadow.

Hillary--a strong, healthy woman who has succceeded in law and now politics on her own ambition and brains.

[spooky3]

2. interesting, thanks.