Scott Brown embraces his Inner Centerfold

Sage McLaughlin writes:

A great example of what I was talking about some time ago when I described Scott Brown as “unseemly.”

I take it that’s his wife grinning away there. What a humiliation.

LA replies:

When and where was this photo taken?

Sage replies:

It was at a sort of “roasting” even called You’re a Good Man, Scott Brown. It was on March 31st at the Hannover Street Theater in Boston, apparently. Something put on by an outfit called Improv Asylum.

LA replies:

But it was a “roast.” That sort of changes it. Our culture revels in these “roasts,” where everything embarrassing about a person is brought out. So there is no way he could have avoided the Cosmo photo at that event.

But there is other evidence showing that he has no regrets about that photo, and that speaks badly of him. There is something tawdry about the guy.

Sage replies:

That’s a fair enough point—somebody was bound to make mention of it, and you can’t blame him for that. But what bothered me about the photo is that he genuinely thinks it’s funny to flash it around in front of his wife, and as you say, he appears to have no regrets, no shame about it at all. Just that goofy, salacious, adolescent grin.

LA replies:

On further thought, the fact that it was a roast is irrelevant. Suppose you were being “roasted” and something you were embarrassed about was brought out, say a 30 year old photo of yourself doing something you are not proud of. As part of the spirit of the “roast” you would have to go along with the joke. But would you then go further, and hold up the photo for cameras, smiling proudly over it? The bottom line is that Brown is pleased as punch with that centerfold, it was a big deal in his life at age 23 to be chosen as Cosmopolitan’s “sexiest man in America” or whatever, and he doesn’t have it in him to regret anything about that centerfold. Furthermore, everything he has said about the subject indicates that he has no grasp of the fact that other people find it objectionable or why they find it objectionable. It’s as though he were in a time bubble from the Seventies, and has never had any critical thoughts about that era

At the same time, in his defense, I would add that he told an interviewer that the thing he is proudest of in his life is that he’s been married for 22 years. Given his parents’ multiple divorces, that is understandable.

Gintas writes:

You wrote:

The bottom line is that Brown is pleased as punch with that centerfold, it was a big deal in his life at age 23 to be chosen as Cosmopolitan’s “sexiest man in America” or whatever, and he doesn’t have it in him to regret anything about that centerfold. Furthermore, everything he has said about the subject indicates that he has no grasp of the fact that other people find it objectionable or why they find it objectionable. It’s as though he were in a time bubble from the Seventies, and has never had any critical thoughts about that era

That just screams “Baby Boomer!” I bet he’s proud of it, and his wife is a little embarrassed, but proud, too. Their parents would shake their heads at it, and do nothing. I believe the Boomer parents were worn down by the Depression, WWII, then Korea, and just wanted to finish life quietly, and their children went wild.

David B. writes:

In your post about Scott Brown holding the centerfold photo, you say that “Our culture revels in these ‘roasts.’ ” Another thing our culture enjoys is self-congratulatory meetings in which someone gets an award. The feminists are especially prone to these. Hillary Clinton is the guest of honor again and again at these occasions.

Another one I recall involved Marcia Clark. Soon after losing the Simpson trial, Clark was at some kind of “Female Attorneys” meeting which I saw on a cable news channel. Upon being introduced, Clark received a thunderous standing ovation, which she accepted with a self-satisfied expression. This was after putting on a very poor performance at a high-profile trial.

LA replies:

The awards dinner—the unceasing round of awards dinners—is a symbolization and rite of late liberal culture: the human self celebrating itself, world without end, amen.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 05, 2010 02:52 PM | Send