Q: Throughout history and the animal kingdom, leadership has been associated with sexual dominance. While we eschew that association in modern times, the fact of so many sexual scandals among public leaders, the latest being New York Congressman Eric Massa, raises the question: Why do so many leaders fall prey to confusing power with sexual charisma? Do leaders face more personal temptations than the rest of us?
Power is the most potent aphrodisiac. Forget oysters, power is at the top of the menu when it comes to sexual arousal. I had only seen it as one way -- women being attracted to powerful men -- until I won a local if well-publicized and hard-fought city council race in the early '80's. Men began to contact me, and it wasn't about the potholes in front of their homes or to get a tax break if they moved their company into the city.
We caution powerful people about how their power needs to be carefully used when it comes to making decisions that affect their office or enterprise, but I wonder how many are warned about the new magnetism they suddenly have (and won't have once their power is gone). We hold women to a much higher standard when it comes to sexual behavior and this is something that we should educate our up and coming political trainees about. Because our sexual power is tied into our ego, as the political ego develops, so may political id. This could lead one to conclude that she can wield this very personal, private power as freely as she does her political power.
Any "sexual" display on a woman's part could cost her for a lifetime. For instance, it has been posited that if Martha Coakley had posed for a magazine in the nude, as Scott Brown had in his early years, she would never have ascended to the level of political power that she occupied. But people's attitude to his posing as a young man was more forgiving if not downright voyeuristic. We do have a huge double standard.
This is much deeper subject: the sexual undercurrent running through politics is strong, and it's used all the time openly or behind the scenes. But it's a power source that has to be reckoned with in leadership, and one that is all to rarely discussed outside of the lascivious details when a scandal erupts.
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