I think if I had been elected to the top elected office in my country aged 33 (and in fairness, I did try), I would want to let off some steam in my own way on my own terms from time to time.
Especially, if like Sanna Marin – the Prime Minister of Finland, I led a coalition government of not one but five different parties.
There’s much to admire about Scandinavian politics and their different way of doing things.
By using systems of proportional representation they are far more likely to produce electoral results which force political parties to work together.
The product of that work tends to be policies which appeal to a much broader spectrum of the electorate.
And their politicians are also far more likely to be women, from all ages and walks of life.
Sanna Marin, who is now 36 going on 37, is a product of that system.
However, she hit the headlines this past week not for her politics, but for having the temerity to dance with her pals.
Video footage of her emerged which led to a stream of outrage.
What did she think she was doing?
How dare she have a drink?
And what if she had to make very big decisions the next day?
Dancing doesn’t stop Sanna Marin being an effective PM
There are a few devils in the detail here.
The first devil is the person who leaked the footage.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
It reminds me of the great advice I received when I was first elected: If you’ve got more than three or four friends in politics, you’ve got too many.
Secondly, the purpose of the leak was to undermine and debase.
To suggest that someone who enjoys dance music somehow isn’t suitable for a great seat of power.
That it is somehow beneath them or unbecoming.
It’s also heavily gendered.
I don’t remember anything like the same outrage when footage of Michael Gove cutting some shapes in Aberdeen emerged.
Nobody questioned the decisions he’d make on the levelling up agenda the next morning.
Love that @MichaelGove was snapped reading about his sensational dancing 🕺🏻 moves on his way back from Aberdeen 😂 pic.twitter.com/7Bj5ZhiSIV
— Darren McCaffrey (@darrenmccaffrey) September 5, 2021
They mocked the dad dancing for sure.
Which was cruel in its own way.
But it didn’t lead to demands for an investigation, or questions about his suitability for great office.
If anything, it gave us an insight into his more human side.
Something relatable.
Women are held to higher standards
The Finnish Prime Minister faced such an onslaught of criticism she was forced to try and take hold of the political storm by putting herself forward for a drugs test.
I found this astonishing.
By so doing she elevated the prospect that recreational drugs might have been involved from a flippant internet rumour into a substantial part of the story.
She had to declare that she had never taken drugs at any point in her life, let alone that weekend.
This comes from a political playbook so old that you have to go back to Lyndon B Johnson to find the roots of it.
The man who would become the 36th President of the US of A once accused his opponent of sleeping with a pig simply so that his opponent would have to deny it.
The denial elevates the act and everyone then second guesses the truth.
Far more people were talking about whether drugs were involved after Sanna Marin ceded to the test.
But perhaps she had no choice.
Women are judged by different standards to men in every walk of life, not least in politics.
Our current First Minister is far more likely to be found in bibliotheque than the discotheque.
Her thing is books, not dance music.
But even with that more socially acceptable hobby, there is opprobrium among the pearl clutchers this week.
How does she have time to be at the Book Festival and the Fringe?
Shouldn’t she be sorting out the bin strikes rather than spending her Saturday nights reading through the latest Booker long list?
Who gains when women are put in their place?
Give it a break.
Or give them a break more like.
Social media and a 24/7 hunger for stories and content means there’s just no escape for our public figures.
It’s particularly true for women and that will eventually come at a price.
We already know the single biggest reason why women say they would never stand for office is the way female politicians are treated online.
Now it’s not just the abuse they have to contend with but the candid moments.
It’s what they order in a restaurant, what they drink, when they relax, who with and how.
Without them, power will remain condensed in the hands of the same old people, with the same old motives and unappetising habits of their own.
It just won’t be on Tik Tok.
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