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Why do we stand for it?
COUNTRY and western singer Tammy Wynette would have been proud that the lyrics of her famous song are still being carried out.
No, not the D.I.V.O.R.C.E. number – the one about standing by your man.
Just look at good old Sarah Brown, wife of stricken PM Gordon. At least she loves and admires him. Even if nobody else does.
She certainly stood by him at the Labour Party conference in Brighton – tall and proud in those oh-so-expensive Jimmy Choo's.
But when did all this political-wife-to-the-rescue malarkey begin? When did it get a designer foothold in the day-to-day running of the country?
Do the spin doctors, the moment they sense a feeling of public unease, turn to her indoors, throw a few designer labels at her and instruct her to get out on the stage and strut her stuff?
Do they really think it will take our minds off such niggles as soaring unemployment figures, senseless wars and the general demise of national pride?
And pray tell, when did these women agree to be part of this charade?
The year Ms Wynette co-wrote and released the lyrics to Stand By Your Man (1968), Harold Wilson was enjoying his first term as prime minister with faithful wife Mary standing resolutely by him (but in a less showy way than Sarah Brown.)
It was also the year Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis and after standing by her first man, JFK and his over-active libido for several years, she steadfastly stood by the second until his death in 1975.
Jacqueline Kennedy, of course, has not been the first First Lady to smile beatifically and support her chap in times of trouble.
It seems to go with the territory – Hillary Clinton perhaps was the master (or should that be mistress?) of this game.
So I wonder, is it something innate, something inborn within us fawning females?
Are we naturally programmed to stand by our men even when commonsense tells us to cut and run would be far more sensible?
Not that very long ago, Tana Ramsay had the chance to ditch her cheating cook of a husband. But she didn't.
Instead she smiled as sweetly as a cherry, peach parfait and soldiered on. Let's hope that in the privacy of their home she set about him with a meat-tenderising mallet.
Wherever you look, devoted wives are devotedly standing shoulder to shoulder with their men. It's a given.
So I hope Gordon Brown – and the rest of the world's blokes in trouble – truly appreciate this.
Kind-hearted Sarah realised her man needed a lifeline, just as Jackie and Hillary and countless others have done before her.
Women the world over are forever standing by their men – even when they absolutely do not deserve it.
Oh, Tammy. Can you even begin to imagine the trouble you have caused?
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Friday 10 February 2012
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