SHAME THROUGH SEX SCANDALS IN POLITICS

Shame Through Sex Scandals In Politics Frat Snmez .D. Bilkent University

SHAME THROUGH SEX SCANDALS IN POLITICS

SHAME THROUGH SEX SCANDALS IN POLITICS

Introduction
Appearance of Shame in Self-Government In the autonomy of societies, the feeling of shame has a remarkable effect in selfgovernment process through providing or supporting auto-control mechanism for individuals. Accepting man as a social animal or considering the social people, shame automatically progresses as a primary device for keeping the individuals in the borders of moral values, norms, traditional rules and etc. As Confucious teaches: Lead the people with administrative injunctions and put them in their place with penal law, and they will avoid punishments but will be without a sense of shame. Lead them with excellence and put them in their place through roles and ritual practices, and in addition to developing a sense of shame, they will order themselves harmoniously (Quotes). Although the content of shame changes from culture to culture, shame functions in the same way for every society that feels the shame in the same way. As an emotion, shame appears in the process of socialization. As individuals get use living in the society, they accept norms, moral values, the right things, the wrong things. Each individual becomes part of each other by constructing limits. Therefore, the necessities for being social occur for every individual. Kurt Riezler tells us: Sociability presupposes some feeling for the ways of others-the will not to hurt, not to touch sensitive spots, not to disclose delicate secrets at the bottom of other souls, not to disparage the things others venerate. (Riezler, 1943). In this process, every individual creates inner and outer identities that stand for self and social identities. Shame appears as the inner life is unconsciously seen by the others. Shame appears to cover that inner identity. In this context, this cover process is related to being kept in the borders of moral values, cultural rules and

SHAME THROUGH SEX SCANDALS IN POLITICS

etc. Adapting to the rules of society provides individuals to cover their inner identity and reveals their social identity to benefit from being social. Therefore, shame has a function in self-government in a way to cover self and it can be seen in many parts of the society, such as administration, religion, and public. Silvio Berlusconi: Prostution and Abusing Political Power Shame in the administration of societies controls both the administration itself and the public. The sex scandals in politics can be the most common factor in the appearance of shame. Prostitution, children abuse or deceptions are some of the sex scandals that are most common in media. Silvio Berlusconi was one of the political names that are involved in these sex scandals. He was known as the richest person of Italy and media boss. Forbes Magazine revealed his wealth as 6.2 billion dollars and the source is media and self-made (The World's Billionaires, 2013). His power is not the only thing that attracted the attention of world public. His unpleasant relationships with women were continuously on the agenda of the media. The last sex scandal was about abusing human rights of a young girl. In 2011, he was accused of paying 18 year old nightclub dancer, Karima El Mahroug, for sex and abusing his political powers to cover up the situation (Hooper, 2011). The sex scandals also increased the reputation of his name in the world politics. Though he struggled to cover up the sex scandals, he earned lots of money from the media and the public opinion is controlled through moral conduct with the feeling of shame. As an administration, shame functioned as to control both Berlusconi and the public.

SHAME THROUGH SEX SCANDALS IN POLITICS

Shame Through Sex Scandals

Autonomy of Berlusconi and Public Berlusconi expectedly denied all the accusations and made fun of the scandal news about this event. In other words, he was ashamed of his situation and the opinions on him, because his struggles were just a cover process, which is directly related to shame. Either the accusations were right or wrong, the accusation itself was the main reason for Berlusconis shame. His shame was both in moral conduct and personal appearance. Prostitution with underage girl and abusing political powers are directly related to the violation of moral values of at least Italian public. His shame was also about his personal appearance, but not physically. At this point, his appearance refers to his stance in politics and in the eyes of Italian public. His appearance in politics is highly damaged with this scandal. As the prime minister, as a leader or as a head of administration, his appearance or the public opinion about his appearance was affected, so that his shame was processed as to cover or protect his appearance. On the other hand, the sex scandals could have affected his power in a positive way. Some of the news announcing or covering his sex scandals are the parts of powerful media organizations that are owned by him. Despite the way his name was known, his name was on the world media and the individuals who are hearing about his actions can just comment or even ashamed. In this perspective, it is a truth that he earned lots of money from these kinds of news; therefore, the scandals could be created consciously. At the same time, his actions can also support the auto-control mechanism of the society, so that the individuals are still attached to the moral values. Especially, the supporters of Berlusconi could be ashamed of his actions, so that apart from their feelings about Berlusconi they are more loyal to the social rules. It is seen that in both negative and positive way, Berlusconis sex scandals made his and publics shame appeared, so that his and the publics selfgovernment process is supported.

SHAME THROUGH SEX SCANDALS IN POLITICS

Shame Through Moral Conduct: Prostitution and Exploitation Prostitution is a violation of moral values, which prepares a ground for appearance of shame. It can be defined as nonreproductive sexual relationship with payment. The commodification of women is a violating act, because the spiritual value of woman is significant in public opinion. In many societies, women are seen as the carriers of mens children. In this view, the women cannot work as prostitutes, because they cannot have sexual relationship with many men without marriage and this relationship is nonreproductive. Korn and Edlund stated that A central feature of our argument is that prostitution compromises female marriage market prospects. It rests on the assumption that men prefer their wives to be faithful (for instance, from a desire to raise biological children). Hence, prostitution and marriage are largely incompatible for a woman (Korn & Edlund, 2002). In this point of view, marriage is commonly a moral value, and therefore prostitution is the violating act against this value. When prostitution occurs with underage girls, the public response increases even more, because the situation will also implicate a higher degree violating act called as child abuse. Further, if the prostitution includes a known person like a role model for society or a part of administration, the public response could be at its peak, because the personalities that have power to control public opinion can directly change public opinion in this type of situations, because social identities of these people are Therefore, Berlusconis situation can be highly regarded as public violating act that has enough power to take very large number of peoples attention. In his situation, the first thing against this kind of accusation would expectedly be denial. The accusation can be wrong itself, but he was affected in a way that his name was known as child abuser. At this point, shame appears automatically to cover or to preserve his identity against the accusation. Scientifically, the person conceals his/her inner identity from the gaze of other people. Charles Darwins observations will be helpful to analyze the body response. He

SHAME THROUGH SEX SCANDALS IN POLITICS

asserts that Under a keen sense of shame there is a strong desire for concealment. and As there generally exists at the same time a strong wish to avoid the appearance of shame. (Darwin, 1969). Thus, the person conceals that violating act and his appearance showing shame. This is because that if person cannot hide that he/she is hiding something, the content of what is hidden will take attention. According to CNN news, Berlusconi has repeatedly denied all of the allegations, even joking about how unlikely it is that a man his age would be capable of the sexual feats some have claimed. (Messia, 2011). His endeavors like joking and repeatedly denials in hiding something take the public attention to the content, which is prostitution with underage girl. As a prime minister, he needs to preserve moral values and act in this way to preserve his identity. Appearance of shame through moral conduct leads to self attention and thinking what others think causes people to be ashamed. The thing that concerns Berlusconi is the public opinion, not his own moral understanding. Moral conduct acts as auto-control mechanism for preserving the structure of public opinion. Any effect to this structure will make shame appear, so public opinion triggers Berlusconis shame to control his actions and Berlusconis actions triggers publics shame to keep public in the borders of moral values.

SHAME THROUGH SEX SCANDALS IN POLITICS

Conclusion
To conclude, appearance of shame in politics affects both the administration and the public in a way to maintain self-government by referring to the definition of shame, covering up the inner identity. The sex scandals in politics can be a way for shame to appear. This appearance is for both the administration and the public. In the context of prostitution, which is a violating act against the moral value, shame directly affects the auto-control mechanism of both sides. The womans place in the societies in the mens view prevents women to work as prostitutes and therefore prostitution is against the public opinion. As a representation of public, the administration should be away from the prostitution. However, Silvio Berlusconis name is involved in prostitution and he struggled to cover up this accusation and to preserve his identity. His struggle is the representation of shame, because of this situation publics opinion about Berlusconi changes, so public is also ashamed for having this administration. Therefore, public and the administration act against moral value and they are ashamed in a way that they both maintain their autonomy.

SHAME THROUGH SEX SCANDALS IN POLITICS

References

Darwin, C. (1969). Self Attention- Shame- Shyness- Modesty: Blushing. C. Darwin iinde, The Expression of The Emotions In Man and Animals (s. 320-321). Iowa: Courtesy of the Meredith. Hooper, J. (2011, 2 15). Guardian. 5 2, 2013 tarihinde alnd Korn, E., & Edlund, L. (2002, 2). A Theory of Prostitution. Chicago Journals, s. 185-186. Messia, H. (2011, 8 25). The Berlusconi sex scandal explained. CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/08/23/berlusconi.sex.scandal.explained/index. html adresinden alnmtr Quotes. (tarih yok). Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4374-lead-the-people-withadministrative-injunctions-and-put-them-in adresinden alnmtr Riezler, K. (1943). Comment on the Social Psychology of Shame. American Journal of Sociology, 457465. The World's Billionaires. (2013, 3). 5 2, 2013 tarihinde Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/profile/silvioberlusconi/ adresinden alnd