11-10-2011, 05:11 PM
Clint Eastwood's new film J. Edgar, about former head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover, speculates that Hoover was gay and in a long-term relationship with Clyde Tolson, the bachelor who inherited his estate. There has been much speculation about Hoover's sexuality, it seems. A lot of the men assigned closest to him were good-looking and it's been claimed he enjoyed cross-dressing.
This got me thinking: why are the personal lives of those in the public eye, especially political figures, so fascinating to many people? Does it matter if Hoover was gay, Thomas Jefferson slept with slaves or Winston Churchill suffered from depression?
This got me thinking: why are the personal lives of those in the public eye, especially political figures, so fascinating to many people? Does it matter if Hoover was gay, Thomas Jefferson slept with slaves or Winston Churchill suffered from depression?
"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." - Gene Wolfe