Are Sex Scandals a Guy Thing?

Nikki Haley joined an elite club when she was accused yesterday of having an affair with a blogger: women who've been caught in sex scandals. Women seem to get the scarlet letter treatment a lot less than men, writes Rebecca Dana of the Daily Beast. Are they more prudent, or just less promiscuous? One anthropologist argues the latter. There are women celebrated for their sex lives, he allows, “but there are none equivalent to Wilt Chamberlain.”

But New York writer Emily Gould says that attitude has warped our perceptions. “Women are typically seen as being acted upon in romantic relationships,” she says. “So the culture-making machinery will simplify whatever the real story is until it is a more familiar wronged-woman narrative.” Or, it could be that women, having worked harder for their jobs, are more careful. “It's not because women don't get the hots for new guys,” says Jessica "Washingtonienne" Cutler. “But who has the time for an affair?” (More sex scandal stories.)