Krystal Ball's Sexy Santa Problem
Whether you are an ardent feminist, someone who doesn’t care about gender one way or another, or somewhere in between, you hate seeing offensive gender stereotypes propagated against women. Life is too short to bother with such nonsense and the sexists deserve all the scorn they can get.
But what really and truly depresses one are the women who actually make the case for the sexists by acting the stereotype of a weak, unserious female.
Attention is turned, therefore, to the awkwardly-named Krystal Ball, 28, Democratic congressional candidate against incumbent Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA). Recently, some semi-raunchy photos emerged from six years ago of Ms. Ball enjoying a “Sexy Santa” party in which she is scantily clad and engaging in some hilarious and not-trite-at-all attempts at playful eroticism with a sex toy.
Rather than shrug it off (“Um, I was twenty two—am I the only one who went to college?”), laugh about it (“Not my best angle in those pictures, I promise!”) or admit that it was maybe not the classiest thing to do for someone who in six short years wanted to tell her fellow Americans what their lives should look like, she instead told em>Politico< that big bad men made her cry:
They wanted me to collapse in a ball of embarrassment and to hang my head in shame. After all, when you are a woman named Krystal Ball, 28 years old, running for Congress, well, you get the picture. Stripper. Porn star. I've heard them all. So, I sat in my husband's arms and cried . . . The tactic of making female politicians into whores is nothing new . . .
Oh dear.
So, it cannot be that someone a mere half a decade away from such juvenile, banally poor judgment should not be elevated to the most powerful legislative body in the world. It cannot be that racy pictures of famous people, especially comely females, inevitably draw attention. It must be that men are reverting to patriarchy and calling women “whores” for having the audacity to ask for a seat at the table of governance.
While no one would deny that such photos garnered more attention because she is female (and no one with a scintilla of knowledge of human nature should argue there is anything wrong with that), Ms. Ball’s reaction is the quintessence of weakness. Would Margaret Thatcher or Hillary Clinton or Angela Merkel respond to political attacks like this? Has Meg Whitman, even when someone actually called her a whore? And regardless of what one may do in private moments, love or hate her, can you even imagine Sarah Palin thinking it Mama Grizzly-ish to tell reporters that meany male Democrats made her sob into the brawny arms of the First Dude?
All practiced politicians deflect even the most legitimate criticism. But those who play the weepy victim when their opponents exploit their mistakes simply don’t belong in the difficult business of government.
Krystal Ball had her chance to woman up during a time of crisis. She didn’t.
So good riddance to her.