In our visually challenged family of four, watching a movie in our house always involves a hunt for glasses. So having located my 15-year-old son’s on the floor, near the PlayStation of course, the two of us headed to watch Weiner, the movie. A documentary about a relatively minor US politician may not have interested him but the sexting-related fall from power did.
Given my lack of expertise as a movie critic, I will trust the Sundance award as a quality mark of production and delivery. The fly-on-the-wall genre dictates little intervention from film-makers and other than an occasional question to prompt self-reflection, the viewer is left to interpret the events captured without framing from talking heads and/or academics. This is refreshing. In a world where we are told regularly what to think of political events, it is nice to pretend we can have a ‘clean’ read, at least momentarily, and formulate opinions from internal self-reflection.
While possibly not familiar to the UK audience, the story of Anthony Weiner, former US Congressman from NY, is a parable about the state of American political culture. The film opens with clip of Weiner’s impassioned speech in Congress condemning Republicans who refused, on a procedural technicality, to pass legislation to help the families of 9/11 victims receive health care services. It was refreshing to see a Democrat so assertive, scrappy, confident and morally outraged. Weiner also happens to be particularly well connected: married to Huma Abedin (a close advisor to Hillary Clinton) and Bill Clinton officiating their wedding.
Over the course of the next hour and a half, we witness what is commonly referred to as his ‘fall from grace’. This two-stage process began with reaction to a picture of a man’s underwear containing an erect penis that was tweeted from Weiner’s own twitter account. At first he denied it, said he was hacked, etc and then eventually confessed it was his own picture. Let’s pause there. The man tweeted to the world a picture of his own underwear-covered aroused penis. Initial assessment: idiot in need of attention and a bit creepy.
The media went crazy, he eventually resigned, did a mea culpa in front of the press, he and his wife had therapy, magazines did pictures of the happy couple putting this behind them. And he launched a bid to be the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York. The arc of this story is familiar to many politicians from Berlusconi to, of course, Bill Clinton himself. Up in the polls, and rockin’ the NYC diversity scene, Weiner and campaign partner wife appear to have ‘weathered the sex scandal storm’ (how clichéd that sounds!).
Then the sexting appears. Apparently the tweeted penis was not the whole story. Weiner had been sexting, and having phone sex, with “between 6 and 10” women whom he had never met. The unclear timeframe for this aroused media suspicion and it appeared that it was still going on post-public apology-happy-family-photo-shoot. Again, let’s pause. A guy was having consensual, no physical contact sex, with women other than his wife. Assessment: not surprising, given the above, but probably a rather ubiquitous relationship bump in the lives of many married couples. At this point the fly on the wall perspective gets really interesting.
In the fast paced world of sexual-political media scandal, it seems pretty evident to everyone except Weiner that his candidacy is over. Unfortunately for his staff and his wife, his confidence tips over into egotistical, trapped-animal mode. He begins lashing out at the media and at potential voters. My son, at this point, asked me: how can a politician be so stupid as to yell at a voter during a campaign rally? Weiner hangs on, finally admitting defeat when the results put him in last place. The film ends with recent clips of Weiner appearing as a talking head on Sunday morning news programmes – God’s waiting room for politicians whose careers have no hope of resuscitation.
My initial assessments focused on a guy in a public world of intense sexual normativity. As a viewer, I don’t sympathise with him but I’m self-aware of my own normative lens. While he might not be a ‘faithful husband’, he did not break any laws, physically abuse his wife or sexually assault any women or children. He didn’t even meet the women. (Spoiler alert: a good movie always has a chase scene through McDonalds.) As an academic, I am more conflicted about how to read it. What are the gender politics at play? We watch as the media paint Huma Abedin as both victim and culprit, conniving and clueless. Why is it not possible to countenance the complexity of intimate relationships? More broadly, what does the film tell us about the American political process? There are some interesting juxtapositions in the film with the media hell-bent on keeping the focus on sex and constituents who couldn’t care less about his sex life but wanted to talk about policy. At times the film seems dated: the days of ‘your average sex scandal’ seem somewhat quaint in the wake of Donald Trump’s candidacy. What does that in itself tell us about the trajectory of American politics?
Being a fly certainly keeps you close to the shit. Having seen it, we, as more sentient beings, then have to choose how we interpret it. That process also involves an awareness of the lenses we wear: What a jerk of a husband; what an idiot to get caught; what a lying fake politician, what a normal guy trying to do some good in politics; what a poor wife; what a man-mess she has to live with; what crazy American media; what stupid sex-obsessed constituents; what is the world coming to! Anyone interested in the state of American politics, the role of the media in setting the political agenda, or just in the risky nature of sexting, should see this film. But don’t forget your glasses, which ever pair you choose to don.
Angelia R Wilson is Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester.
In partnership with documentary powerhouse, Dogwoof, the Political Studies Association is hosting a screening of Weiner at House of Vans London on Thursday 18 August. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session led by Professor Rosie Campbell (Birkbeck) on the state of politics today and what it means to be a politician in the age of social media. Register for a FREE ticket here.
