For centuries, sexual freedom was a male prerogative. Women were the objects of male sexuality, quite often nameless, faceless, non-persons who were walking masturbation aids.
The resignation of Randall Tobias because of revelations he was using a DC escort service for massages, included the following (courtesy of Think Progress):
On Friday, Ross broke the news that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias had frequented the escort service. Ross added new details to that story tonight, recounting how he asked Tobias in a telephone interview “if he knew any of the young women, their names. He said he didn’t remember them at all. He said it was like ordering pizza.”(emphasis added)
There is more delicious - or disgusting - schadenfreude (which, as I have said before, is German for "Neener-neener-boo-boo! I'm right You're Wrong!") over the fact that, as director of US AID, he had all sorts of programs directed at reducing HIV-AIDS and the world-wide traffic in women as sex-workers. The point is driven home with the appropriate level of rage, disgust, and resignation by Josh Marshall here:
But let me clip out just a couple grafs from Brian Ross's and Justin Rood's piece at ABC's The Blotter that show just how richly obscene (and not in the sense most people think) this story really is ...
On Thursday, Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the "Pamela Martin and Associates" escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." Tobias, who is married, said there had been "no sex," and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages.
Another service "with Central Americans." That's what he's using now. This is the guy in charge of America's international aid and development assistance to countries around the world. ("I was using one service that sent Thai broads. Now I get 'em to send Central Americans.") I'm glad this bozo is showing our best face to the world and clearing up any misunderstandings about exploiting people in the Third World.(emphasis added)
If I hear or read a single Bush defender talk or write about the morality of the Bush Administration over and against that of the Clinton Administration; if I hear or read one little item about how this cannot compare to the horror of Clinton getting blown in the Oval Office by an intern; if I hear or read anything about how this is an isolated instance of the lack of judgment and discretion on the part of a single official etcetera etcetera blah blah blah - I swear the top of my head will pop off, spin around, and land at my feet.
I am neither naive nor stupid enough to think that this kind of thing didn't happen during the Clinton Administration (or any Administration going back to, say, John Adams). To have the man who is in charge of directing programs aimed at reducing STDs, HIV-AIDS, and human sex-worker trafficking switching from a high-rent escort service to one using "Central Americans" describe the entire process as akin to "ordering pizza" is about as vile and morally repugnant as it gets.
For my conservative friends who might want to buy Tobias' claims that "no sex" was involved, I shall be explicit here. No sex was involved in the same way no sex was involved in the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, i.e., no sexual intercourse. Massage escorts routinely provide manual or oral sex for their clients; why call one of them when there are reputable massage therapists available?
I'm still stuck on how RIGHT I was. A couple weeks ago I talk about how the powerful do not consider these women as people; this weekend, a Bush Administration flak discusses these fleeting encounters as similar to ordering pizza.
Am I good, or what?
UPDATE: I guess I wasn't clear enough about my own views of the whole Tobias and the call girl thing. I am not critical of Tobias for acting as all of us (and here I would disagree with my big-as-in-oldest sister, because I know more than a few women who have succumbed to temptations of the flesh; the difference of course is that women have much less power in this and all societies, so there is less of a systemic problem with the dehumanization of men by women than vice-versa) have on occasion. I am not quite a libertarian as either Duncan at Eschaton or digby tend to be, if for no other reason than this happens to be further evidence (as if any were needed) that the members of the Bush Administration just happen to believe the rules do not apply to them. Tobias can scream about the dangers of pre-marital sex and the horrors of sexual-slavery-for-profit, but he spends his government salary getting massages first from high-end escorts (some of whom, at least according to first reports, are part-timers, professional women apparently looking to pick up some tax-free cash giving hand jobs to the powerful), then switching to a service that uses "Central Americans".
Part of the point I wish to emphasize here is made better (as usual) by digby in the post linked above:
[Quote from Tobias] In many cases [HIV-AIDS] is driven by cultural factors, where young girls are having sex with older men and [are] coerced to do that, where women aren't regarded as equal citizens with men. So there are lots of things that need to be done addressing those kinds of cultural issues also.
[digby] From what we hear, the main prostitution ring may have been made up of skilled and educated women who chose to be call girls for a variety of their own reasons. This is none of my business and if politicans and others have not been out there preaching sexual morality on Fridays and getting happy endings on Saturday then I don't see that it's anybody elses business either.
Exploiting illegal immigrants or poor women is another thing altogether. Indeed, it is, as Tobias himself said, a matter of coercion and if he had anything to do with something like that he should be in much deeper trouble than just patronizing a call girl agency for a little extra-curricular massage. It's possible, of course, that this Central American "service" is also made up of young professional women who are making some extra cash on the side, in which case I make no judgment beyond his rank, laughable hypocrisy on the faithfulness and abstinence issue. But let's just say I'm skeptical. That "cultural issue" he talks about is pretty universal, but you would expect that the man who has been all over the globe and seen the results of such exploitation would have been cured of his taste for third world masseuses.
Along with the sexual slavery, as I highlighted above, is the whole "ordering pizza" line. Whether they are part-timers looking for extra bucks putting the powerful in the palms of their hands, or American and or other nationals coerced into sexual slavery is of little difference to Tobias, because he views them on a level with take-out (funny, considering what they were taking out of him). I think we need to consider this line as instructive for how not just Tobias, but most men view women-not-their-significant-others with whom they want a little personal time, paid for or not. It's an insight into the minds of the very powerful towards the less powerful. It's a view into the mind of a man, pretty representative of a certain class of men, towards women.
