The Power of Discourse in a Political Sex Scandal
On August 12th, 2004 New Jersey Governor James McGreevey became this nation's first openly gay state governor. Several moments after he stated, "I am a gay American", he succumbed to intense political and public pressure by announcing his resignation from New Jersey's most powerful position. This announcement and resignation came after a week of intense allegations that McGreevey sexually harassed a male colleague whom he had appointed. While American politics are not foreign to sexual scandal, the political destruction and individual defeat which McGreevey currently faces is poignantly unique. Throughout his career, McGreevey has been formally investigated for unethical political practices on at least 4 occasions. One of the current investigations includes allegations of fraudulent campaign finance practices and nepotism within upper end political appointments. Despite the severity of these allegations, it was the charge of sexual assault from a male employee that forced his resignation and retirement from politics. In order to understand the severity of the sexual harassment allegations against McGreevey, it is necessary to look at the situation through the eyes of Rubin and Foucault. Not only did McGreevey's actions reflect the social sexual hierarchy described by Rubin, but through his secrecy and discretion McGreevey disrupted the powerful discourse of his position with political and public realms.
In her essay "Thinking Sex", Gayle Rubin strictly outlines the rules of sexual conduct which currently exist in Western society. These rules have created a sexual hierarchy which places heterosexual, monogamous, married, reproductive sex at the top. Anything deterring from this position, is placed below in varying degrees. The allegations of sexual assault made against McGreevey not only announce publicly his sexual preference, but according to Rubin, place him at the very bottom of the sexual hierarchy. First and foremost, McGreevey is a married man. Any act of sexual advance towards anyone besides his wife can be seen as adulterous. Second, these sexual advances were made toward a male colleague while McGreevey remained in a heterosexual marriage. Thus, in the eyes of a bystander, he is eliciting homosexual behavior without claiming full affiliation with the gay community.
Most importantly, the allegations of sexual harassment bring into question the consensual nature of his advances. As Rubin explains "A democratic morality should judge sexual acts by the way partners treat one another, the level of mutual consideration, the presence or absence of coercion, and the quantity and quality of the pleasures which they provide.
Sometimes there’s nothing more powerful than a personal story of tragedy and perseverance. With poise, humor and emotional pleas, Monica Lewinsky is able to captivate her audience through her narrative – one known to many in a public sense but far more vulnerable and moving when told through her private moments. Lewinsky’s speech, titled “The Price of Shame,” shares a broad call to action against cyberbullying and online harassment, highlighted by her own battles and a devastating tale of a young man who inspired her to finally speak out. Decades of silence create a sense of expectation among the audience. It also automatically captivate Lewinsky’s listeners as they hang on every word from someone they’ve heard so much about – but never from. Over the course of this paper, I will analyze Lewinsky’s TED Talk as a persuasive speech meant to galvanize listeners to recognize and actively combat cyberbullying in an age where many try to capitalize and profit on public humiliation. I will show how her persuasive style is effective with respect to her personal expertise and gut-wrenching stories, while also recognizing areas – like her call to action – where her argument could be strengthened and better delineated to
Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their lives. Geanne Harwood, interviewed on an National Public Radio Broadcast commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, said that “being gay before Stonewall was a very difficult proposition … we felt that in order to survive we had to try to look and act as rugged and as manly as possibly to get by in a society that was really very much against us.” The age of communist threats, and of Joseph McCarthy’s insistence that homosexuals were treacherous, gave credence to the feeling of most society members that homosexuality was a perversion, and that one inflicted was one to not be trusted.
This was a man who at the time was in the position of being elected associate justice of the Supreme Court. Anita Hill, who had worked for him as his personal assistant testified about these comments made by Clarence Thomas, "pornographic materials depicting individuals with large penises or large breasts involved in various sex acts. On several occasions Thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess (Smolowe)". This. Is. Not. Harmless. Garvis clearly did not take Hill 's words seriously and gave her own two cents about it, "Maybe he talked dirty to Anita Hill. Maybe He didn’t. Something obviously went on between the two of them that was sexually charged". What we are doing now is brushing off this man 's actions because a woman 's opinion is not valued enough because the attention was unwanted so there was no so called "sexual
That is the question of the century, and it frequently asked, especially by women in a relationship. Communication is key, but it is often a problem between couples. Men and women communicate in different ways, and there is constant misunderstanding during these variations of communication. Deborah Tannen really aids her audience in understanding these types of communication in her article, “Sex, Lies, and Conversation.” She has a PhD in linguistics, and is a professor of linguistics as well. She provides very useful information and even gives situations to relate to.
On August 17, 1998, exactly one year after making the statement above, President Bill Clinton prepared to deliver a speech concerning a scandal that had gripped the nation for months. It is needless to say that this was an important moment during the Clinton administration. After accusations of sexual harassment, Clinton addressed the nation and admitted to having a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. In this critical speech Clinton set out to admit to wrong-doings, provide a few reasons for his action, and ultimately persuade the audience into moving on and forgetting the scandal. This essay will break down his speech into sections and examine the most and least effective strategies that Clinton employed and how well he executed those strategies. This is an interesting speech given under rare circumstances. Not since Watergate had an American president been under such harsh moral criticism from the public. By looking critically at this speech we are able to gain valuable insight into Clinton's motives.
In “The Real Scandal,” Sharon Begley and Martha Brant develop an argument against the tacit allowance of the use of “banned” performance-enhancing drugs among Olympic athletes. The 1999 Newsweek cover story details incidents involving individual athletes caught using banned substances, the continuous race between the discovery and detection of new performance-enhancing drugs, and examples of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) complacency. In particular, the authors question the validity of the IOC’s current drug testing policies and protocols within the context of their self-defined role to “lead the fight against doping in sport” and “encourage and support measures protecting the health of athletes” (Organization). In order to better argue against doping in sport and advocate for more efficient and rigorous drug testing, Begley and Brant employ emotional appeals, logic, and a kairotic stance within their writing to persuade their audience of the necessity of firm action by the IOC and the worldwide community on the subject of performance-enhancing drug abuse.
The committee makes several recommendations in regards to changing the laws and legislations surrounding the incrimination of homosexuals for what had previously been considered sodomy. The basic premise being that “homosexual behaviour betwe...
Heaney, Seamus. "Try to Praise the Mutilated World " The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov.
Senate Report "Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government," cited in John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States 1940-1970 (Chicago: University Press, 1983
The Big Bang theory states that although the universe is currently cooling and expanding, the universe was once much hotter and smaller. The most compelling evidence for the proof of the Big Bang theory are the movement of distant galaxies, the expansion of space time, and the hydrogen and photons in the universe.
Wilton, Tamsin. "Which One's the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbain Sex." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 157-70. Print.
Stein, Edward. The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation. New York, NY: Oxford UP, 1999. Print. 20 Oct. 2011
Which suggest that, the universe is expanding because the galaxies are moving away from us. So, if the universe is expanding, then it must have been much smaller in the past. Going back far enough, there was a moment when all the matter in the Universe was packed into a point and expanded outwards and that moment was the big bang. It is possible to work out when the big bang happened by the speed of the galaxies movement from each other about 14 billion years ago. We cannot really see the galaxies moving, but the clue is present in the light coming from them which is known as red
13.8 Billion years ago, long before the creation of the popular television show, The Big Bang Theory occurred and is now the most widely recognized cosmological model for the universe. The Big Bang theory is an attempt to explain how the universe we know today began. Over the years, numerous discoveries and research have revealed that our universe did have a beginning, and that there was nothing before the Big Bang occurred. Throughout history there have been other theories as to how our universe began, though the Big Bang still prevails. One of the most exciting parts about the universe is a vast and fascinating place and there are even new discoveries still being made today. The Big Bang theory is widely regarded as the most likely scenario
Presently, the Big Bang theory is the most logical scientific explanation of how the universe began. The majority of cosmologists favor the Big Bang theory and the idea that the expanding universe had an initial, incredibly hot and dense start (Peterson 232). According to the Big Bang theory, at one point in time, more than 12 billion years ago, matter was condensed in a single place, and a huge explosion scattered matter out is all directions (“Big Bang Theory” 403). At the moment of its origin, the universe was infinitely dense and hot, but as the expansion occurred, the universe cooled and became less dense (Narlikar 12). The debris the spewed from the initial explosion became the building blocks of matter, forming the planets, stars, and galaxies (Narlikar 12). Officially, the Big Bang model is called the standard cosmological model (SCH), and it has been the most widely accepted theory of the origin of the universe since the 1960s (Rich and Stingl 1). Most astronomers are in agreement that the universe’s beginning can be traced back to 10 to 15 billion years ago following some type of explosive start (Narlikar 12). Big Bang theorists have estimated the actual bang occurred 13.7 billion years ago and was followed by an inflationary period that created time, matter, and space (Rich and Stingl 1).