Whoredom

Most of you are fully aware of Krystal Ball and her run for a Congressional seat representing Virginia and it's not for her stripper-esque name. I'm willing to bet none of you paid any attention to the race until last week when a right wing blog released photos of her at some sort of Christmas party doing highly sexualized acts, such as sucking a red dildo on her then husband's nose.

Naturally this launched her into the national spotlight and I found myself questioning whether this was intentional by her campaign. Of course that moment was fleeting as I couldn't understand how this could possibly help her career in politics.

I never learned anything from the photos about Krystal herself. I wasn't aware of the issues she stood for nor did I understand why in heaven anyone would name their child that. I did; however, learn a lot about myself.

When I first saw the pictures I passed her off as some kind of dumbass who obviously doesn't take a career in politics seriously. I figured she was a joke who treated her candidacy as such, but I was misguided in my thinking.

Looking back at my younger years before the age of Facebook, cell phone cameras, etc I engaged in activity that I'm thankful was never documented on film. I'm sure all my friends would agree that we all can breathe a collective sigh of relief that our families will never see us in compromising images that are made for public consumption. We narrowly escaped the social networking scene and our stupidity, or even harmless fun that looks like Satan's work, remains largely in our memories if not in photos.

Krystal Ball did nothing wrong by attending the party and having it documented. Our generation is a highly sexualized one and you'll just have to accept it. Women are often more assertive in that respect and that should not be victimized because of it. We've all done things we're certainly not proud of, or at least have moments you wouldn't want to share with the public. If I chose to go into politics to serve my community, state, and/or nation my sexual history should not hinder that. She never made herself a moral candidate and can hardly be called a hypocrite. If you think she's a whore and somehow not capable of having a seat in Congress then you're definitely holier than me, or most of us for that matter.

I finally read her statement regarding this issue and I suggest you do as well. I found her to be articulate as well as reasonable, something lacking in politics today. If she loses the race I hope she runs again and again. The country could use more straight shooters like her. If I lived in Virginia she'd probably have my vote.

The generation following us will be under much more scrutiny if they want to go into public service and for that I pity them.

"I don’t believe these pictures were posted with a desire to just embarrass me; they wanted me to feel like a whore. They wanted me to collapse in a ball of embarrassment and to hang my head in shame. After all, when you are a woman named Krystal Ball, 28 years old, running for Congress, well, you get the picture. Stripper. Porn star. I’ve heard them all." - Krystal Ball