Omss-Culture: Culturebox: Scandals



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culturebox Scandals Why we can't live without them. By Laura Kipnis Posted Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010, at 1:55 PM ET From: Laura Kipnis Subject: Why We Can't Live Without Them Posted Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010, at 1:55 PM ET It's only when a great scandal breaks after a protracted dry spell that you realize how much delight other people's transgressions provide the community and how monotonous things get when everyone plays by the rules. Life had been a bit sluggish on the scandal front this summer compared with last (who can forget lovelorn governor Mark Sanford's transcendently excruciating press conference last June on the subject of his "dear friend" from Argentina?), so when the first of Mel Gibson's secretly recorded rants surfaced in mid-July, scandal junkies everywhere perked up. Microphone-studded earrings! A personality publically disintegrating, a career in ruins! His agent dropped him; an upcoming movie project hit the skids; the blogosphere lit up like a petroleum fire. All of which almost offset the crushing disappointment when the usually voluble Illinoisan, Rod Blagojevich, chose not to testify at his corruption trial, an event many of us had been keenly awaiting. For once he keeps his mouth shut? Why now? After all, culture needs scandal: It's a social purification ritual, a necessary feature of the system, with the socially noncompliant branded and expelled, allowing the system to reassert itself and flex its muscle. Stay in line ... or else. Scandal has crucial functions to perform: If communities are enclaves of shared norms, then scandals are what consolidate a community. They organize our hatreds. The media may whip things up for motives of its own, but it's our proprieties that have to be breeched, and we care about these breeches deeply. Especially we who play by the rules: Ours is the glee of bitter conformists. To continue reading, click here. Laura Kipnis' new book, How To Become a Scandal, will be out at the end of August. Her previous books include Against Love: A Polemic, and The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE \| READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Bogus Trends: Kiddie Porn, Sextortion, and Chinese Hymenoplasty The Incredible Jazz Photography of Herman Leonard Was Hurricane Katrina Good for the Environment?	Advertisement
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Now playing: *Slate V, a video-only site from the world's leading online magazine. Visit Slate V* at www.slatev.com.
culturebox Scandals Why we can't live without them. By Laura Kipnis Posted Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010, at 1:55 PM ET From: Laura Kipnis Subject: Why We Can't Live Without Them Posted Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010, at 1:55 PM ET It's only when a great scandal breaks after a protracted dry spell that you realize how much delight other people's transgressions provide the community and how monotonous things get when everyone plays by the rules. Life had been a bit sluggish on the scandal front this summer compared with last (who can forget lovelorn governor Mark Sanford's transcendently excruciating press conference last June on the subject of his "dear friend" from Argentina?), so when the first of Mel Gibson's secretly recorded rants surfaced in mid-July, scandal junkies everywhere perked up. Microphone-studded earrings! A personality publically disintegrating, a career in ruins! His agent dropped him; an upcoming movie project hit the skids; the blogosphere lit up like a petroleum fire. All of which almost offset the crushing disappointment when the usually voluble Illinoisan, Rod Blagojevich, chose not to testify at his corruption trial, an event many of us had been keenly awaiting. For once he keeps his mouth shut? Why now? After all, culture needs scandal: It's a social purification ritual, a necessary feature of the system, with the socially noncompliant branded and expelled, allowing the system to reassert itself and flex its muscle. Stay in line ... or else. Scandal has crucial functions to perform: If communities are enclaves of shared norms, then scandals are what consolidate a community. They organize our hatreds. The media may whip things up for motives of its own, but it's our proprieties that have to be breeched, and we care about these breeches deeply. Especially we who play by the rules: Ours is the glee of bitter conformists. To continue reading, click here. Laura Kipnis' new book, How To Become a Scandal, will be out at the end of August. Her previous books include Against Love: A Polemic, and The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE \| READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Bogus Trends: Kiddie Porn, Sextortion, and Chinese Hymenoplasty The Incredible Jazz Photography of Herman Leonard Was Hurricane Katrina Good for the Environment?	Advertisement
Manage your newsletters on Slate Unsubscribe \| Newsletter Center \| Advertising Information Please do not reply to this message since this is an unmonitored e-mail address. If you have questions about newsletters, please go here.
Ideas on how to make something better? Send an e-mail to newsletters@slate.com. Copyright 2010 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC \| Privacy Policy Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive \| c/o E-mail Customer Care \| 1150 15th Street NW \| Washington, D.C. 20071

Culturebox: Scandals

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