prPOPS!

I understand every person and relationship is different. It seems to be normal and healthy for a couple to have their ups and downs. Makes sense.

Don’t worry, this isn’t a “Loveline” relationship analysis. It is, however, related to what I feel is Image Management. I’m referring to the recent situation with Eliot Spitzer, but more importantly, to Silda Spitzer and all of the other politician’s wives who’ve dutifully stood by their cheating husband’s sides.

Sociologist Erving Goffman wrote The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, analyzing the processes and actions people create and manage for their social roles. Goffman used stage (“dramaturgical”) metaphors to describe how people live their life as a stage performance and control their own scripts and settings.

I came across a fantastic previous professor of mine from the University of Dayton, Dan Miller, and his writings on Goffman and symbolic interactionism. Goffman also popularized the concept of “saving” or “losing” face, which describes how people control their own behavior to avoid situations that may cause embarrassment or humiliation.

One could say former Gov. Spitzer tried to hide his affair(s) from Silda Wall Spitzer and the rest of the world because he wanted to “save face,” or maybe because he is an alpha male who thought his political status could exempt him from being a lying adulterer…

Regardless, I’m particularly interested in why Silda, Hillary Rodham, Wendy Vitter, Dina McGreevey and Suzanne Craig felt it was their responsibility to stand by their husband’s sides, especially during the humiliating (for both parties I’m sure) press conference and public apology.

I fully understand every one of these cases, situations, and couples are different in their own way, but from an outside perspective, I cannot fathom why a wife needs to stand stoic and proud at her husband’s side as he is reading a public apology script to try and save whatever “face” he has left.

In a Psychology Today blog post, Stanton Peele also ponders why the cheated-on wife feels the need to stand dutifully by his side. “We shall see if Silda Spitzer falls in the group of women who find their marriages to powerful men sufficiently rewarding to overlook – and to assist – their husbands’ very public indiscretions.”

In Public Relations, it is important for an organization to consistently manage its brand and image among the public, employees, shareholders and stakeholders. Similarly, in order to be successful it is vital to be as transparent as possible with every public.

Organizations must maintain its “face” or brand as much as possible, same as the politician and their spouse.