taking a walk with sanford

Music: Soundtrack to Mahogany (1975)

For decades I have puzzled over a certain reference in a favorite Cure tune, "The Walk." The song begins with these lyrics: "I called you after midnight/then ran until my heart bust/I passed the howling woman/and stood outside your door." I've always understood that this was a love song, since after Smith professes his undying love he pleads, "take me for a walk, lets go for a walk," where walk means "fuck." I never could figure out who or what the "howling woman" was. After (former) Gov. Sanford's press conference yesterday, I finally got an answer:

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That's her in the upper left corner, the woman who begins to grin the moment Sanford's voice begins to quiver and the confession comes out. She's joined for a good few minutes by a taller woman who also starts grinning (and then texting, or obviously looking at a phone), but ultimately it is only the one, grinning woman who remains gleeful until the end. Technically, she is not howling, but I suspect for most television viewers she might as well have belted out a maniacal screech for the duration of the press conference.

I confess the press conference was fascinating, for all sorts of reasons. The confession itself was rather boring and predictable and, of course, strategically a very bad idea. From a political perspective, Sanford confessed to little more than his own narcissism. We all know the kind of person who screws over many people and then, after all the damage is done, falls on his or her knees and apologies, claiming to "face the music." Then they repeat the routine. He might be able to come back, but he'll be on the Newt Gingrich "I-abandoned-my-dying-wife-for-another-woman" ten year plan. He should have released a press statement instead.

What was more interesting than the "rhetoric" was the staging and the gleeful women in the upper left. Why were they smiling when Sanford appears close to completely losing himself? What was so amusing about this man's pain? I could only surmise that these women were among Sanford's staff, whom he misled and made endure all sorts of media pressure. Perhaps after what he put them through, they were happy to seem to fall.

On television and the InterTubes today and yesterday, however, I've heard people remark of these woman, "what were they thinking?" and "oh, how rude" and so forth. But is it, really? What if a man was grinning behind them? Would he have received the same scrutiny? Probably not. Given the context of the situation---a man's bad behavior---I suppose the smiling women were destined to be received as the "howling women," the castrating women, the very same threat that motivates philandering in the first place. Cheating on one's life's partner may be motivated by sexual desire, even the impossible love of long distance (I get that one, truly I do). But cheating on one's wife---and lets face it, four kids---is also tantamount to saying, "no woman has a purchase on me; I can have more than one," at least at some level. The figure of the castrating woman is the figure who threatens to "cut if off" if you adopt such a posture.

I suggest that the howling woman, the grinning women, were entirely fitting for this on-screen ob-scene. Their presence, and utter disregard for Sanford's mea culpa routine, is a statement from women that, yes, they can castrate and, in this one instance, they'll do so to the deserving . . . with a smile.