Infidelity and the Political Wife
May 2, 2008
Recent history has provided several examples of politicians forced to publicly confront their own infidelity — and political wives faced with the choice of standing by their man, or walking out the door.
Karen Sternheimer, sociologist in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and editor of the Everyday Sociology Blog, dissects the phenomenon in a video chat with colleague Sally Raskoff of Los Angeles Valley College.
Many have questioned whether Silda Spitzer, wife of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, should have had to stand next to him at the podium as he apologized for dallying with prostitutes.
That scenario may be a form of stigma management for the husbands, Sternheimer says. It conveys the message: “My wife isn’t so mad at me that she won’t be in the same room with me, so maybe you shouldn’t be so upset either.”
“There’s definitely an element of gender in there too,” Sternheimer adds. If the situation were reversed, and a female politician cheated on her husband publicly, we probably wouldn’t expect the husband to stand at her side, Sternheimer says.
When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa admitted to having an affair with a journalist, his wife didn’t stand by him, but instead filed for divorce. While he managed to keep his office, there was no longer much talk of him running for governor, Sternheimer and Raskoff note.
And then there is the famous case of Bill Clinton’s extramarital activity, which continues to echo around the fringes of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“Why do people get so angry at her for staying with him? Why do people care?” Sternheimer wonders. The Clintons have been criticized for the career-oriented side of their relationship, she says. “Which is strange, as though they’re the only couple that have a political marriage, where there’s an agreement that this is going to be a major part of their lives.”
Sternheimer is an expert on media representations of deviance, and American celebrity culture.
Contact her at (213) 740-3541 or sternhei@usc.edu.