If anyone believes the sex war is over, look at the weekend’s headlines – for once double standards are not the sole preserve of men.
Iris Robinson is not a sinner according to a Times columnist, who argues any middle-aged woman who can shock the grim grey-suited orthodoxy of Northern Ireland by seeking sexual satisfaction deserves canonisation.
On the other hand, here in golf-crazy Sweden, Tiger Woods proposed £1.8million donation to the Haiti relief appeal hasn’t dented fury over his serial infidelity to Swedish wife Elin, with the normally pacifist Aftonbladet commending her vengeful golf strokes. “While Hillary and Posh Spice chose to keep silent, diet and become feminist doormats, Elin stood with both feet firmly planted on the ground and realized the shame was Tiger’s, not hers. Thank God for girls like Elin. Next time, I hope she uses a bigger club.”
Iris is a saint (because few warm to her righteous sounding husband), Tiger is a sinner (because everyone warms to his beautiful, serene+looking wife.) So much for rationality in the torrid world of sex, infidelity and marriage, and yet that is the uncertain world into which David Cameron has plunged the Conservatives with his on-off pledge to encourage marriage by tax breaks.
Cameron says evidence shows a married two-parent family is the best way to bring up kids. Maybe it is. But if a lifelong, monogamous, formally recognised and legally binding committment is unattainable for a sizeable minority of Britons, making marriage the gold standard will fail, and the creation of more single parent families may be the unintentional result.
Sweden has the second highest divorce rate in the world – second only to the family loving United States.
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