Knee-jerk reaction to this one for me was “I don’t worry about it, and I’m generally annoyed with the idea that women tend to think that they need to please men.” For people in general, I consider their thoughts and feelings as much as I can when I deal with them. I have limits that I will not cross for anyone, and the most important one is that I no longer allow others to take advantage of my good will. If a man wasn’t happy with that, I wouldn’t change to please him. My self-respect is worth more than any relationship.

In my travels on the Net today, I vaguely remember seeing a link claiming that this situation would not have made it past the back pages of the papers in Europe. We’re young, virtually adolescents in their eyes, and our fascination with sex is quite appropriate if we are viewed in that light. I would like to say that I will add this to my list of situations where politicians were wrongly destroyed for actions in their private lives that did not affect their work, but the fact that Spitzer is so unlikable makes him useless for that. I am hoping he redeems himself outside politics.

Beyond lack of fact-checking, it’s easy to believe any awful thing people will do to themselves and each other. Otherwise, it is a market of misery, where the author presenting the most desperate tale gets the big book deal, best-selling status, and attention of the afternoon talk shows. As for why authors think they can get away with it, I’m not entirely sure that they do. My highly cynical self says that greed takes over. The not-so-cynical part ponders the possibility that terminology in literature muddied the waters a bit. Memoirs can also be called creative nonfiction, and many writers stick with that first term while forgetting the second.