From President Kennedy to Eliot Spitzer, to Tiger Woods- married men have been having affairs for years and it seems the more high profile they are, the more they are desired, and whether or not they have a spouse, is irrelevant.  In the past,  it seems that the other woman was ostracized and shunned by society while the man was viewed as “just being a man,” but now it appears that the tables have turned…but not necessarily for the better.

In today’s society many women are making a profit from being the mistress of a wealthy and/or famous man.  For example, since former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s scandal, Ashley Dupree, his mistress, now has a sex column in the New York Post and she is on the cover of the May 2010 issue of Playboy Magazine.  Also, the first exposed mistress of Tiger Woods, Rachael Uchitel, has now been offered a job as a TV correspondent for the television show Extra.  Excuse me for sounding insensitive, but I find this news to be very disturbing. 

There are hundreds of thousands of young men and women, who have recently graduated from college, and unfortunately due to the economy,  they find themselves to be unemployed or underemployed, yet these women carried on long term affairs with  high profile gentlemen and they are rewarded for their behaviors with relatively high end jobs.  I find this to be a slap in the face to college graduates and also to all the entire staff of Extra and The Washington Post.  Our society claims to promote education, intelligence, and hard work as being a way to gain prosperity; yet our culture has become so grossly infatuated with scandal and gossip that we are willing to reward women and pay them good money for being “the other woman.”  I believe our culture should be very ashamed, for we are teaching young girls to use their bodies as a way of to gain success and not their minds.   Now by no means am I saying that these women should be shunned and made to feel bad about themselves.  I do believe that they should be able to put this behind them and continue on with their lives, but by no means do I feel that they should be rewarded for taking part in breaking up a marriage and a family.  Eliot Spitzer and Tiger Woods were not rewarded for their extra marital behaviors, so therefore I do not believe their mistresses should receive any benefits.  I think that if our society continues to condone this type of behavior it will only enhance the belief that a woman’s body is more important than her mind.  We should encourage women to respect themselves,  educate themselves, and earn wonderful careers through  hard work and dedication for that is the only way to have longevity in your career.  For being a mistress may allow for you to be the “it” girl for now, but in a few months, or a few years if you’re lucky, you will no longer be relevant.