Your Right to Leer

a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/02/AR2007060201163.html”img src=”http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/06/02/PH2007060201164.jpg” align=right border=0/aWhen I look at my husband with affection, am I leering? br /br /I guess not since I’m a woman and can do no wrong except for being a right-leaning libertarian. However, if you’re a man, particularly a emRepublican/em man, who looks at his wife with affection, you are now accused of “leering”–especially if you are Fred Thompson. For those of you not familiar with the story from the other day, MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough a href=”http://newsbusters.org/node/13206″made a crude comment /aabout Thompson’s wife “working the pole.” br /br /I then a href=”http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/06/is-america-ready-for-trophy-wife-as.html”read this /apost by someone named “Libby” at The Newshogger’s Blog, saying: br /br /blockquoteBut what really struck me about this piece was the photo. If you didn’t know, you would think it was a father and daughter, well except for the slightly lecherous look in his eyes. It’s clear he’s proud of his beautiful young wife, who is actually four years younger than his real daughter….br /br /Even assuming they fell crazy in love and just had to be together, it’s somewhat jarring to see them together in the photo. She looks so young, you expect that she signs her name with a little smiley face instead of a dot on the “i” at the end. In studying that shot, I couldn’t help but think if Fred has been dating her only a few years eariler it would have been considered a sex offense [see update]./blockquote br /br /Now Libby updates her post to mention that she misread Ms. Thompson’s age, thinking she was in her 20’s when she was actually forty but I say, so what? This is yet another example of a woman who deep down believes that men have no right to leer at women, lest it be considered a sex offense. And she is not alone, there are many other women who feel that unless one is Bill Clinton or the object of emtheir/em own lecherous desires (of course, for these women, their own desire is called empowerment–not lechery!), a regular joe has no right to look at a woman–not even in pictures–with desire in his heart. In their eagar quest to control men’s sexual rights, some “feminist” women (and other prudish ones too!) go to extremes to shame, expose or intimidate men who let their lust for women dare come to the surface. br /br /In an extreme example, one of my commenters (thanks!) a href=”http://porndetective.wordpress.com/”linked to this website /acalled Porn Detective whose mission is to catch men reading porn and reprimand them. If this site is real, isn’t this intimidation and stalking to take pictures of men going into porn stores and posting them on the internet? How would women feel if a site called Abortion Detectives elected to take pictures of women going into abortion clinics and post them on a website? I bet the site would be shut down pretty fast. br /br /My point here is that men have a right to sexual expression just as women do and leering or even an interest in porn is not a crime–but if some women have their way, it soon may be. So, I say to you men out there who believe in your right to sexual freedom, stand up for your right to leer–or it may soon be a thing of the past.br /br /Update: Ann Althouse weighs a href=”http://althouse.blogspot.com/2007/06/when-men-leer-at-their-own-wives.html”with some keen observations:/a “But back to Fred Thompson. He’s leering at his own wife. Does that make it okay? Well, there are lots of things you can do with your wife that people don’t want to see in public. But what are people seeing with Fred Thompson? He doesn’t stare at her breasts, does he? More likely, you’re staring at her breasts, and then you’re looking at him — egad! he’s older! — and you’re projecting your own feelings on to his face — including, perhaps, the feeling that you don’t want him to be President. You can still insult him. Go ahead! Just know what you’re doing.”