Stripper Poles and Politics
Stripper Poles and Politics
Did I get your attention with that title? Well, that was what one of our politicians did in Macomb County. Have you ever seen the way a politician looks? The ones you expect to be representing our country. A stately gentleman or gentlewoman with his pressed white shirt with their smartly pressed pant suits and coats. Isn’t there a notion on how we perceive our elected official and how they should look and act? No life before their run for office except an exceptional college and perfect credentials, and as a plus military service with no wild past of passion at all. Should we not have a more updated view on what a politician is or should be? Should they not be themselves with the good, bad and maybe so questionable activities that are rather harmless but there?
Women, some of the newer generations, are trying to break free from the traditional ways we look at politics. Running for office, woman in general, is bit of an upheaval for some people. Some feel as this is a beginning to the end. Then when you throw in a sexy, smart, beautiful blond into the mix, many people only look at the cover of the person not what good convictions or heart they would have.
One such candidate, that has broken the barriers in our own little corner of Macomb County, is Carey Torrice. She made the choice in 2006 to take that chance in District 16. She wanted to make a difference. She wanted to make a change in her area using the passion and conviction she had in her heart. Giving the political arena a new face and a hot body to admire or criticize depending on who was looking.
Between her ads, next to her campaign sign, she wore a yellow bikini or her racy police uniform pictures showing her well endowed cleavage, she took campaigning to a whole different level. She also had a website that, from her opponents view, was not what the citizens of the 16th district wanted out of their representative. In my view, she was showing the world that she had a good healthy, creative drive to get publicity without spending extra money. She was doing it smart. From all the free news media coverage, this blond bombshell with her smoking body was all people first looked at and not what she really stood for in here quest for the commission’s seat.
When the news came out she had a stripper pole in her bedroom it was like the plague and her opponents hope it was the death for her campaign. When I even mention the word stripper pole in my work place the men looked up and the women giggled. They remembered the campaign she ran. The comments from the men in the office, was that they would defiantly vote for someone like that. The women again then spouted back, that of course a man would say that. Truth be known the younger adults I talked with, saw this woman as a step in the right direction. For they felt she represented them. The younger adults looked at her media frenzy as some sort of power to her to maybe change that old school politics a bit.
Just recently in the news on channel 7, one of the stories was about stripper pole parties. They are all the rage in fun fitness, but when it came to Carey during the campaign it was a whole different thing. It was a way to discredit who she was as a representative for the district and as a person. This made her a target for others people to try to tear her down too.
Did anyone ever think to ask what she was really about before any one judged her? For Carey Torrice who is 31 years old born and raised in Macomb County with an education at Chippewa Valley High School and Macomb Community College. Her major was in Public Relations and Communications. She also is active in MADD, Muscular Dystrophy, a member of the Women Business Owners and the National Rifle Association. Together with her husband, they own a PI firm. Working with your husband, just that alone, shows some kind of tolerance with people. It is not an easy to work with any spouse in any job.
Why do we hold women in such high status of acting in and out of the public eye anyhow? The men for years had many payoffs, bribes, and scandals back in the day as well as behind closed door politics. Look at the Kennedy/Monroe scandal or the Bill/Monica scene with the blue dress just to name a couple. There are so many more people that should have been discredited. Why should the younger group of politician, up and coming, be positioned to act like and dress like old school politicians?
I am gender bias so when I see a women on the ballot at the polls I check them out, see what there stance is and usually, if it is good, I vote for them. I feel getting an even amount of women to men in public office will give more balance across the board. As long as we get women in the office who meet the requirements for that position, we do have that chance of a varied prospective. Digging up and trashing people about who are or if they are going in poles apart directions, with their ideas, is wrong. Look at the issues in the political race and not the package of the candidate is what people should be doing. Most people don’t ever really get past that initial view. The voters did re-elect Carey to here commissioner seat even among the feeble attempts of opponent trying to give her slack about how she represented herself as a package.
I stand firm on what she did was right by giving the public to view these photos and website to get the people attentions. By revealing herself and her ideas, it gave the voters a reason to take a second look. It helped her get into a position that she wanted by bending the pro-tem organization in her favor and not the way others wanted her to do with her campaign.
She stated in an e-mail to me, in response several to questions I had asked her, this really stuck out for me believing in yourself can make things happen and take you a long way. Further than you could ever imagine and down paths you never thought you would venture down. With that kind of heart inside that beautiful person, I believe she and other new generation politician can make that change in this corner of our area, the rest of our state and within this country. Stripper pole or not Carey Torrice should be an inspiration to many for showing us there is more to a picture than the surface attention.
