There is one less Weiner in the United States Congress as of this past Thursday. The aftermath of the Twitter sexting scandal caused Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner to give up the position he’d held since 1999. His voice heavy with remorse and shame, he announced his resignation at a press conference amidst cheers and hecklers shouting “pervert”.
As far as sex scandals go, this one is oddly tame. Earlier this month, Weiner sent this PG-13 photo of his erect penis shrouded in grey boxers to a 21-year old female college student who followed him on Twitter.
After the picture was leaked on the website BigGovernment by conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, Weiner alleged his Twitter account was hacked and refused to cop to the photo for one week.
More photos surfaced, including an alleged shot of the erect penis stripped of its grey boxers, and upon realizing he was in too deep, Weiner held a press conference on June 6th where he finally owned up to the crotch shot:
“To be clear, the picture was of me, and I sent it. I’m deeply sorry for the pain this has caused my wife, and our family, my constituents, my friends, my supporters and my staff… I lied because I was ashamed at what I had done, and I didn’t want to get caught.”
Both the media and late night talk shows had a field day with the story, especially personal friend of the ex-congressman, Jon Stewart. But really, does it come as much of a shock that a guy with the last name Weiner would send lewd photos of himself online?
Furthermore, does it come as much of a shock that almost anyone out there would have an arsenal of scandalous photos floating out there in cyberspace?? I for one would never be able to seriously pursue a career in politics unless I changed my name and altered my face… although it isn’t my face that makes the pictures in question so vulgar!
This sentiment was echoed by sex columnist Dan Savage in his podcast from June 14th:
“This desire to pathologize behaviour that isn’t sick, that is really common and human and completely and instantly understandable, that itself is pathological. Weiner does not have a problem. Weiner has a computer. It is the same problem that all Americans these days have. We all have computers and sometimes we make fools of ourselves on them.”
It makes you wonder just how many politicians are texting lewd photos of themselves right now and not getting caught.
Photo credits from smosh.com and fullcomment.nationalpost.com
I think Joe Rogan expressed the irony of this scandal well