Image by ImaArtist on pixabay
Yes, those Kennedy’s.
Sounds mean, right? Or judgmental? But I don’t intend it that way. It’s just a conclusion drawn after hours of research. I’m certainly not the only one who feels this way. Ask Maureen Callahan. Or better yet, just read her book.
Ever Since RFK, Jr. announced his presidential bid in April, I’ve been obsessed with the sixties and the Kennedy presence therein. Seeing RFK, Jr.’s classic Kennedy face on news shows, articles, youtube, and twitter has felt like a blast from the past.
It catapulted me back to a time when the country seemed so much younger and more hopeful, probably because the president was: JFK was elected at age 43. A teenager in comparison to our current (and previous) president.
Unfortunately, most Americans (these days) know JFK for his assassination. But when he was alive, he was famous for being a war hero, a Pulitzer Prize winning author (Profiles In Courage), a senator with loads of potential. And finally as a fresh and charismatic president.
If you learn about him only through history textbooks or the official John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website, you can get many of the important details. He was young; served admirably in the navy in WWII; created the Peace Corps. He had a beautiful wife and two adorable children. And he governed the country during complicated and highly stressful times that included the Cuban Missile Crisis and the escalating Vietnam war.
These official writings and websites, however, leave out one important detail.
He was a hottie.
Yep. No joke.
Photo by Florida Memory on Unsplash
As I look at pictures of him today, I don’t entirely get it; but this is a different time. During his days in the white house, however, everyone knew he was it. Sure, people knew his wife: Jackie was beautiful, beloved, poised, and charming. Quintessential first lady material. But it was her husband who was the star of the show. And not just because he was, obviously, the president. It was just as much because he was simply hot.
And that’s the problem: that hotness. Look at the presidents who preceded him: FDR, Truman Eisenhower. Certainly those who came after: LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter. Not a looker among ‘em. Not even close. Considering what America was accustomed to, JFK was indeed a babe. You can’t really blame the country for being smitten.
But I can and do blame JFK for leveraging that hotness. The dude was a downright horndog.
His inner circle knew it. Indeed, they fostered it and (most likely) benefited from it. The press, an entirely different animal back then, largely protected Kennedy’s reputation by ignoring his indiscretions. It’s the way things were. As one woman, who claimed to have had a four year long affair with JFK said to People magazine in 2021:
“This was a culture that concretized the gap between ‘accomplished men’ and young women who can be brought in and out, a conveyor belt of young women,” she goes on. “I’m not here to throw dirt at a dead man, but I am here to say the culture is incredibly problematic.”
In other words, everyone knew (including, most certainly, Jackie) and no one cared. In fact, Jackie herself had to know she could not demand an end to such behavior, go public about it, or dump the philandering fox and run back to mother. No, that was not an option.
Instead, she lived with it. As had her mother-in-law Rose and sisters-in-law Ethel and Joan. As would their daughters-in-law.
Not to say that these women were saints. But surely they paid an unacceptably high price for the Kennedy name and legacy.
Of course it’s not just the Kennedy’s. Nor is it some old tradition, to love the “bad boy.”
It’s happening all the time. Right now. Everywhere.
Look at Hunter Biden, for example. Despite all the images of paid sex on his laptop, his history with drugs, his four children with two different women, and a tumultuous relationship with his brother’s widow, someone still came along and said: let me get some of that!
Melissa Cohen married the guy in 2019. They had a baby together in 2020.
Don’t get me wrong: she’s probably a lovely person. I’m sure their son is a delight. But there’s no way that relationship is enjoyable; there’s no way it ends well. Surely that’s obvious from a mile away.
Yet she jumped in. Girl, why?
I know: there’s money there. There’s a famous name. But still. WTF! Who wants her mental health, youth, and entire soul usurped in exchange for fame?
Yeah, I know: he’s “changed.” It’s unlikely, but hey—she knows him better than I do. Even so, give him a year or two to prove it. Don’t just fall for it.
Which leads me to the only thing I have left to say to my sisterhood of women.
Ladies: stop! Just say no. Kick the bad boy to the curb. Turn your back because he’ll be fine. You are not his last hope or the only one who understands him or his last chance at love in this world. Don’t let him put your heart in a blender and hit frappe.
Please.
You deserve better.