Monica Lewinsky isn’t having it anymore. It being the constant stigma of being treated like little better than street trash whenever mention of her name is made. That hitting the twenty-year mark on the anniversary of the unveiling of one of the biggest (and most blown out of proportion) scandals in U.S. presidential history (of course, this was before we could’ve fathomed the Orange One) also happens to coincide with the retro act of her recently being “uninvited” to an event just because Bill Clinton decided to show up is merely added cannon fodder for Lewinsky. If Clinton got to give his speech at the event (which he’s always been very good at), so then, would Lewinsky give hers. On the internet.
In the past, Lewinsky might have bowed out and backed down (not going to use the phrase “bend over” here) without a fight. ‘Twas the way of the world to be relegated to the background where a woman’s place and story belonged as footnotes to those of the men whose lives they populated. At least in the eyes of the men who have too long relished silencing them. Unless, of course, her story serves a purpose in taking down the leader of the free world. Which then 24-year-old Lewinsky’s very much did in 1998, when Ken Starr and his investigative team found this beret-wearing intern very interesting indeed. But once she served her purpose–and her life and reputation were ruined in the process–Lewinsky was no longer so interesting. In many respects held up like a freak show to be fragmented and dissected for sport in the same vein as Tonya Harding, Lewinsky could find no escape at the height of those tabloid journalism days. When she was discussed afterward, it was always in tones either hushed or mocking. And it’s taken her the decades since to realize that she’s “lived for such a long time in the House of Gaslight, clinging to my experiences as they unfolded in my 20s and railing against the untruths that painted me as an unstable stalker and Servicer in Chief.” A large part of her catharsis of late has been a direct result of #MeToo–having a tribe of women to belong to that can understand being manipulated and seduced by power and the men in possession of it.
And for a while, Lewinsky was even content to believe that all those old prejudices against her had been put to rest thanks to the reckoning that is still upon us. But no, once Clinton accepted the invite to appear at the philanthropic summit held annually by Town & Country Magazine, where Lewinsky had already been scheduled to give a talk at the conference, it was none too subtly “suggested” that perhaps she ought not to attend so as to avoid diverting attention from the cause at hand. To be more blunt: don’t show up deary, or you’re going to make everyone feel uncomfortable with images of that mouth of yours on our ex-president’s wang.
Not content to keep quiet this time around, Lewinsky, like so many these days, took to Twitter to express herself by remarking, “Dear world: please don’t invite me to an event (esp. one about social change) and—then after I’ve accepted—uninvite me because Bill Clinton then decided to attend/was invited. It’s 2018. Emily Post would def not approve.”
As usual, the rights of white men usurped all–and as usual, claims of oblivion served as a mea culpa from them, with Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña commenting, “Neither he nor his staff knew anything about the invitation or it being rescinded.” Yes, Clinton’s “staff” never knows about anything until the damage has been done, isn’t that right?
With regard to Lewinsky’s sudden fearlessness about speaking her mind (even though she has spent much of her post-Clinton scandal existence advocating for anti-bullying campaigns), it comes from a place of feeling, at last, that there is safety in numbers. That is, the barrage of women who have finally found the courage to come forward and tell the truth about what’s happened to them as a result of the abuse of power at every level and in every industry. Writing in Vanity Fair, Lewinsky explained, “Given my PTSD and my understanding of trauma, it’s very likely that my thinking would not necessarily be changing at this time had it not been for the #MeToo movement—not only because of the new lens it has provided but also because of how it has offered new avenues toward the safety that comes from solidarity.”
As for those who might roll their eyes at Lewinsky “glomming on” to the movement, darling please, she was an original gangsta of being Svengali’d by a man in a position of authority. Though, at least Clinton was far more attractive and likely far less scary than the monster that kept Hollywood ingenues in his vise grip–for Lewinsky still maintains that “having sex is having intercourse” and she “never even came close to sleeping with [the president].” Maybe that’s hard to “swallow,” but until otherwise is declared, we can all just accept that it was a tactile and oral faux pas committed on the regular. So, really, can everyone just get over the blow j that cost Bill his integrity (as if Gennifer Flowers didn’t already) and Hillary her pride? Lewinsky’s only crime was being an experimental twenty-something enamored with the notion of the most powerful man in the world being interested in her. Clinton should have known better, he being the “mature adult” in the scenario. And, you know, put a stop to any flirtatious advances instead of unzipping his pants while Hillary was in the very same structure. Lewinsky, at the time, seemed to pay a price almost higher than Clinton’s–for she could never recover her reputation. That is, perhaps, until now, at a moment when it’s finally all right for a girl to say enough is enough.
