Monica Lewinsky spoke
from the TED stage in Vancouver recently to tell the audience, “At the age of 22,
I fell in love with my boss. At the age
of 24, I learned the devastating consequences.”
In her speech,
entitled “The Price of Shame”,
Lewinsky recounts how she was betrayed by her friend Linda Tripp, was
threatened with jail time and was swept up in the maelstrom of President Bill
Clinton’s impeachment. Throughout the
national disgrace of Clinton’s unchecked libido, Lewinsky was the target of
slut-shaming.
She withdrew from
public view for more than a decade, but has reemerged to tell her story. I listened to her 22-minute speech and found
it compelling and moving. The temptress
is resigned to her mistakes, but forcefully speaks to the viciousness of
cyberbullying and makes a plausible argument that she was the first true victim
of the phenomenon of “cultural humiliation”.
I think when
President Clinton referred to her as “that woman”, he wounded her forever. Many believe she is speaking out now to
cripple the political future of the Clinton dynasty, but Lewinsky defended
herself saying, “It is time to stop tip-toeing around my past.”
For now, at least, I
believe her because no one would wish to “walk a mile in someone else’s
headline.”
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