When I started this blog I had a short list of mistresses and most of them were in the Historical Mistress category but as time goes by more and more mistresses emerge in the news, often because they out themselves by writing books or are written about. After all, most mistresses are in secret relationships, as secret as those who keep the secret. After all, we aren't ready for polygamy to be legal. We're still struggling with gays being allowed to marry legally.
One of the discussion issues about Mistresses is defining who is or is not a Mistress. MOST OF THE WOMEN WHO ARE CALLED MISTRESSES IN THE PRESS are NOT! Of all of the modern women who have suffered due to this label is Monica Lewinsky, who was simply in an affair with President William Jefferson Clinton when he was in office, though she may have felt love for him that he didn't have for her. Strangely, it is his denial of her that has set her apart, and possibly made her unmarriagable. Every adulterer is not a mistress or mister, and not every mistress is an adulterer!
In History many mistresses of Kings and other Aristocrats were married (some would say Married OFF) or acknowledged financially. It was considered good for the family. (An example or two is Mary and Ann Bolyn.) Some men, including husbands (think Camilla Parker Bowles' husband Charlie) were tolerant or delighted that their women were of interest to men with power and those men with power sometimes sent the husband away on some official duty but often rewarded them.
These days many mistresses are self supporting.
These days some women are keeping men.
These days some women mistress for a time because it suits their time of life, and move on into marriage or singlehood on purpose.
These days when women have more power over their own lives than ever (though not as much as the feminists would idealize) some are choosing to be with men who cannot or will not marry them.
WHY?
I think it comes down to LOVE.
There isn't the benefits of marriage to a mistress that wives can have, and many a wife is staying in a loveless marriage for one reason or another, often financial. So whose to throw the first stone at another woman who has financial as well as other interests in a relationship?
Earlier in the year I said that I might go a couple months in 2012 without naming a Mistress of the Month and it never happened because there were too many mistresses in the news to ignore. This month I'll be focusing on the holidays and I hope you will be too!
Missy
C 2012 All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
Missy Rapport / Mistress Manifesto
No comments:
Post a Comment