Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner: Why women are tiring of 'good wife' image

Huma Abedin was at the side of her husband Anthony Weiner again this week, but women are beginning to see the pageantry of spousal support amid sex scandals as a blow to their dignity.

By Harry Bruinius,?Staff writer / July 25, 2013

Huma Abedin, alongside her husband, New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, speaks during a news conference at the Gay Men's Health Crisis headquarters, Tuesday, July 23, 2013, in New York.

John Minchillo/AP

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?Putting yourself out there comes with a cost.?

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So concludes a brief essay Huma Abedin wrote last week ? before the current scandal broke ? and published Wednesday in Harper?s Bazaar. It puts her ?out there? with a photo that takes up almost as much space as the essay: She stands smiling in a light mint-green dress, her left hand conspicuously displaying a traditional diamond ring and wedding band.

The title of the article in the women?s fashion magazine: ?The Good Wife.?

Now, as a scandal-hungry news behemoth turns its eyes toward Ms. Abedin, this carefully crafted image may be backfiring on the close adviser to potential presidential aspirant Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Given the particularly noxious details of her husband Anthony Weiner?s behavior, not to mention its timing, a chorus of women is beginning to challenge the predictable pageantry of spousal support during the frequent parades of sex scandals over the years.

Call it a changing paradigm in the political perils of power couples, but as Abedin expresses her love and support for her husband, standing by the disgraced former congressman as he admits, for the second time, to lurid details of online sexual dalliances, the costs of being out there as ?the good wife? may end up ruining her as well.

?Voters have almost become immune and accustomed to that image,? says David Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision, an Atlanta-based political consulting agency. ?So to the public, that?s almost a playbook. They?ve come to expect that in a scandal.?

?But a lot of people are wondering now, what is the driving dynamic here?? continues Mr. Johnson, a veteran of political campaigns. ?Why would such a high profile woman, with such a career, continue to take this??

Indeed, this is the question most people have been asking for the past few days. The old adage, ?Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,? has been peppering conversations about Abedin, especially among female voters.

And since she is so successful and powerful in her own right, the pageantry of the ?good wife? is not only starting to wear thin, it is starting to make some women angry.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/IWAVMyftP-4/Huma-Abedin-and-Anthony-Weiner-Why-women-are-tiring-of-good-wife-image

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