Kirsten Powers on Anthony Weiner: "This is not about sex. It’s about dominating and inflicting physical pain on a woman."

Powers, who dated him a decade ago, and defended him last week, is now calling on him to resign:

By far the most disturbing information that we have been privy to—there is, no doubt, more out there that we don’t know—is the transcript of a nine-month "sexting" relationship Weiner had with a Las Vegas blackjack dealer. Radar Online posted the transcript, and it is rife with misogyny and distorted views about women. In referring to oral sex, Wiener tells her, “You will gag on me before you c** with me in you” and “[I’m] thinking about gagging your hot mouth with my c***.” This is not about sex. It’s about dominating and inflicting physical pain on a woman, a fantasy the hard-corn porn industry makes billions of dollars on selling to men. You don’t want to gag a woman with your penis unless you have some serious issues with the way you see women.

Hard-corn porn? Hilarious typos aside... let's not go all Women's Studies about the man's efforts at writing about sex. It is not an easy literary task.

Okay. I just went and read the entire Weiner/Weiss transcript. (PDF.)  Read it out loud, in fact! A few thoughts:



1. This is my favorite exchange. (Boldface is Weiner.)

are you as passionate in the sack as u are about politics? I'm getting bored of my f*** friend

baby you'd be crawling for the door to prevent me from f***ing you silly

nice, just what I'm looking for. I want to bang the future mayor of nyc!

making me h**d

It's the idea of getting to be mayor that really excites him.

2. I don't think it's "rife with misogyny and distorted views about women," as Powers put it. The quotes she extracts follow an approach to texting that the 2 have established in which they get each other going with blunt sex talk.

aahh...wish I was in the shower with you to help

you give good h**d?

i've been told really good...I love doing it

wow a jewish girl who sucks c***! this thing is ready to do damage

and swallows every drop. god damn how do I get you here to f*** me?

<= thinking about gagging your hot mouth with my c***

the anticipation of f****** you is driving me crazy! come to vegas so I can suck your c*** for an hour. you must be in the shower...i am getting very nice visual before bed. I'll probably have some filthy dreams about you (again!)"

It goes on like that. He's not saying anything she doesn't welcome. You can easily see that in context. Powers says "This is not about sex." But it obviously is.

3. Based on the entire transcript, I would say that the only problem with his attitude toward Weiss is not "misogyny," but the way he maintains a minimal contact with her over the course of nearly a year, when she keeps begging him to come to Vegas and to "f*** the s***" out of her. I think he knows there's no way he's traveling out there for her, yet she might imagine that he will. It would be decent to tell her that, but, really, she seems like a strong person who knows what she is doing, getting a thrill out of playful intimacy with a celebrity she admires.

4. I have no idea whether Huma Abedin objects to his fooling around like this. For all we know, she reads these written dialogues aloud to him and the 2 of them laugh about it. We do not know.