The Weekly, Obligatory "Trophy Wife" Story

This is getting pathetic. The last time I checked, it was Fred Thompson who was mulling a run for the presidency, not his wife. But the news outlets seem intent on making this a weekly thing. Last weekend, it was the New York times that did it. Today, ABC News gives it a shot:

"Stripper." "Bimbo." "Permanently tan."

These are just a few of the adjectives used in the media lately to describe Jeri Kehn Thompson.

She's the wife of likely Republican presidential candidate and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, and one of the latest women to have characteristics associated with "trophy wives."

Thompson joins the ranks of other notable women who have been referred to as trophy wives, like Donald Trump's ex-wife Marla Maples and the late Anna Nicole Smith.

But is she really a trophy wife? Though she's blond, beautiful and nearly 25 years younger than her husband, Kehn Thompson, a political media consultant who previously worked for the Senate Republican Conference and a prestigious Washington law firm, doesn't appear to fit the typical description.

Can a woman be so accomplished on her own and still be considered her husband's "trophy"?

ABCNEWS.com set out to figure out exactly what makes an ordinary wife into a trophy wife.

What follows this is a three page discertationand discussion with psychiological professionals on what makes a "trophy wife." Some professionals are offended by the notion. Others explain it away. What none of them point out once -- just once -- is the fact that while Jeri Thompson (note to ABC, they refer to her as "Kehn Thompson" throughout the piece; her first name is "Jeri") is an attractive, smart, and savvy woman, she is still not running for the nation's highest office. She is Fred Thompson's wife. Basically she matters little in whether or not people would vote for Senator Thompson.

As for the term itself, I do find it offensive. I find it so because, according to professionals quoted in the piece, a "trophy wife" is someone who has the looks, can make idle chit-chat at social functions, dresses expensively, and is considerably younger than her husband. (Aside from the expensive clothing, I meet the other prerequisites I just listed.) I do not consider myself a "trophy wife." I consider myself, and Thomas will back this up if ever asked, as an equal to him. While I may lack the extra years of knowledge that he possesses, it does not remove me from an equal footing. We both have assets that we bring to the table just as much as we have drawbacks.

One question that is not answered, and pardon me for sounding petty about this, but why is there no talk of a "trophy husband?" Are older women excluded form taking a younger husband? Do they meet the same pre-reqs? Or is it simply because they are male, no such designation is available to them?

Personally, I am not happy with the media doing this to Jeri Thompson. They are literally making a mountain out of a molehill, and trying to dig up something that just does not exist. So, instead they have resorted to low-brow swipes ayt a woman basically based on her looks. And I condemn this line of inquiry into her the same way I condemn people on our side who make jokes about Speaker Pelosi and Senator Clinton. We do not need to go to gutter humor or comparisons to criticize either of those women. Their faults are wide open for the public to see.

But the media seems content with making things up about an accomplished, intelligent young woman simply because her husband is older and is running for president. It is thoroughly disgusting.

Marcie