I did not realize you were there to witness it first hand.
My bad.
You appear here @ usmb as some sort of a self-appointed Tribune of the people when it comes to sexual issues and how society sees things or doesn't. It's fine by me that you're really intolerant of intolerance in that area. I'm just amused by the denial you live in and your ability to be self aware. You're probably a good guy, but most likely not as nice to be around as you might like to believe. Am I wrong?
Facts matter:
Looking back, Lewinsky also explained to PEOPLE of the Clinton scandal, "For me, at 22 there was this combination of the awe of being at the White House, the awe of the presidency and the awe of this man who had an amazing energy and charisma was paying attention to me."
"I was enamored with him, like many others," she continued. "He had a charisma to him — and it was a lethal charm, and I was intoxicated."
Lewinsky said she also no longer
needs an apology from Clinton, stating, "If I had been asked five years ago, there would have been a part of me that needed something — that still wanted something. Not any kind of relationship, but a sense of closure or maybe understanding. And I feel incredibly grateful not to need any of that."
What Lewinsky said she did hope for, however, is a continued discussion, especially about the dynamics between men with power and those without it.
perspectives do on some level, but...
It’s not a straight line from portraying Lewinsky as a sex kitten to the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in prime time and celebrity sex tapes as business opportunities. But she was surely an early example of the limits of emphasizing personal choice above all.
So, what might feminists have said about Lewinsky instead?
I can think of a few things. Maybe that consent is important, but that not everything we consent to is good for us. And that consent can’t prevent someone from abusing the power we’ve given them over us.
Also, maybe that even if it was okay for Lewinsky to tell the president she had a crush on him, that it was still abusive for Clinton to pursue an underling. Maybe, too, that a young woman deserves equitable pleasure and consideration in a relationship. And maybe that no number of big jobs to prominent women outweighs the rotten treatment of women without influence or connections.
...
A generation of boys and girls would have benefited from more sophisticated conversations about consent and what kind of treatment they deserved in their relationships.
And an honest assessment of what leverage Lewinsky truly had in her relationship with the president of the United States could have laid better groundwork for an era in which sites like OnlyFans lowered the barrier to entry for aspiring sexual capitalists. It doesn’t infringe on anyone’s agency to acknowledge that treating youth, beauty and sexual availability as commodities often works out very differently for women than it does for men.
It’s taken decades for Americans to see Monica Lewinsky clearly. That delay cost her terribly. But it cost the rest of us, too.
