Monica Lewinsky Pens Powerful Essay on #MeToo Movement and Bill Clinton Scandal
-
Loading... - Monike Theodote
- 26 Feb 2021
- 932 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Monica Lewinsky does not feel alone any more...
The infamous former White House intern-turned-activist has penned a personal essay for Vanity Fair on the 20th anniversary of Kenneth Starr's investigation into former President Bill Clinton.
From 1995-1997, Lewinsky was involved in a sexual relationship with the President of the United States, 27 years her senior, when she was just 22 years old. The former intern subsequently found herself at the epicenter of a political and sex scandal in 1998—and today, she's got a lot to say about taking down men in power.
In the piece, Lewinsky, now 44, looks back on the affair with Clinton, whom she has been vocal about condemning in recent years, and the aftermath. She explores and ponders how the revolutionary #MeToo Movement has helped her get over her "trauma" of her past and not feel quite so alone.
In the essay, she writes, "As I find myself reflecting on what happened, I’ve also come to understand how my trauma has been, in a way, a microcosm of a larger, national one. Both clinically and observationally, something fundamental changed in our society in 1998, and it is changing again as we enter the second year of the Trump presidency in a post-Cosby-Ailes-O’Reilly-Weinstein-Spacey-Whoever-Is-Next world."
Lewinsky adds, "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.”
Lewinsky also says that there was an "inappropriate abuse of authority" between her and Clinton, who was 49 years old at the time the sexual relationship began.
"I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent," she continues. "Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege."
She goes on to explain say that other women speaking out about being victimized by men in power has helped her greatly and how "pernicious conspiracies of silence that have long protected powerful men when it comes to sexual assault, sexual harassment, and abuse of power."
The outspoken personality continued, "Through all of this, during the past several months, I have been repeatedly reminded of a powerful Mexican proverb: 'They tried to bury us; they didn't know we were seeds.'"
She concludes the essay succinctly, "Spring has finally sprung."
