Sex and Power

sex and power: Young women have a sexual power that men can only dream of. As Susan Estrich notes wryly, “No male interns, to my knowledge, have commanded the attention of the president’s best friend.” That kind of power can be used to channel lust into love, marriage, and children; to create a sphere of life not driven by market rules. But it is of relatively little use in the pursuit of power in politics or the corporation, where, as Estrich points out, more Monicas sleep their way to the bottom than to the top. An ambitious woman may use her sexual power as an entree to the game, but the women who get to the top tend to be those who know how to become “honorary men,” valued for their skills and not as objects of male desire.

Feminist dreams of sexual sameness in the pursuit of power are doomed to be frustrated by another, subtler gender difference: For women, power is just power, it is not also sexual power. Henry Kissinger famously quipped, “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” But who believes that being appointed secretary of state enhanced Madeleine Albright’s sex appeal? The psychic rewards of power differ for men and women.

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Susan Estrich

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sex and power: Young women have a sexual power that men can only dream of. As Susan Estrich notes wryly, “No male interns, to my knowledge, have commanded the attention of the president’s best friend.” That kind of power can be used to channel lust into love, marriage, and children; to create a sphere of life not driven by market rules. But it is of relatively little use in the pursuit of power in politics or the corporation, where, as Estrich points out, more Monicas sleep their way to the bottom than to the top. An ambitious woman may use her sexual power as an entree to the game, but the women who get to the top tend to be those who know how to become “honorary men,” valued for their skills and not as objects of male desire.

Feminist dreams of sexual sameness in the pursuit of power are doomed to be frustrated by another, subtler gender difference: For women, power is just power, it is not also sexual power. Henry Kissinger famously quipped, “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” But who believes that being appointed secretary of state enhanced Madeleine Albright’s sex appeal? The psychic rewards of power differ for men and women.