How sex scandals and rumours lay bare our sexist attitudes, in Hong Kong and elsewhere

Alice Wu says the allegations about chief executive contender Carrie Lam’s marriage show how quick some people are to blame women for the behaviour of men, and this is not OK

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Chief executive contender Carrie Lam deserves kudos for coming out and squashing rumours about her husband’s alleged infidelity. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:31am, 12 Mar 2017Updated: 5:36pm, 12 Mar 2017

Sex sells, unfortunately. Once exposed, extramarital affairs may ruin not only marriages, but also, sometimes, depending on the gender of the cheater, political careers.

Most of the time, male politicians get away with it. It may take repeated transgressions, as in the case of Anthony Weiner, for it to definitively end careers. Some kept at it with very little professional consequences (Think Rudy Giuliani). Some can even brag about it – one did and was elected to the world’s most powerful political position.

We rarely hear of female politicians cheating, but that’s not to say that women don’t cheat. Former Taipei City councilwoman Chu Mei-feng’s political career ended promptly after a sex scandal. We don’t hear much of cheating women politicians afterwards: they don’t get to make a comeback like the men. Amy Koch, Minnesota’s first ever female majority leader in the senate, had an affair with a staff member and her career crashed and burned.

Sexism is all around us in Hong Kong

Something disturbing happened in Hong Kong politics this month. Chief executive hopeful Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor deserves a big “bravo” for coming out and squashing the nasty rumours about her husband and an alleged mistress.

I don’t even understand how that could have been some “black material”, even if the allegations had been true. Infidelity did become an issue at the last chief executive election, but that was because one contender admitted he had strayed. The last time I checked, Mrs Lam is running in this one, not Mr Lam.

Carrie Lam: I need my husband to lean on

This is where it gets absurd. Would having a cheating spouse count as a black mark against any candidate? If so, then something is seriously wrong. It is 2017, after all. It’s incredible that some people still hold to the backward thinking that women are to blame for their husbands’ affairs.

How sex scandals and rumours lay bare our sexist attitudes, in Hong Kong and elsewhere

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Carrie Lam: I need my husband to lean on

Sexism is all around us in Hong Kong