Monica Lewinsky - Sara
Answer
Who is Monica Lewinsky?
Monica Lewinsky was born on July 23, 1973, to Bernie Lewinsky, a doctor, and socialite Marcia Vilensky (Morton, 1999). She was raised in an upper-class family in Beverly Hills, with the zip code 90210 (Morton, 1999). With this zip code and location there was significance attributed to status and appearance and after Monica’s parents divorced in 1988, Monica became dejected, put on more weight than socially accepted in this community and became very unhappy and ridiculed (Morton, 1999, p.34). A few years later, she would face greater scrutiny and humiliation at the hands of the media and betrayal of coworker, Linda Tripp (Baker & Harris, 1998).
Today Monica is a public speaker, an activist, and a leader in anti-bullying advocacy (Scheff, 2017). She boldly claims in a Ted Talk, “There is painfully a sad lack of empathy and compassion in our cyberworld. People rush to make rude and (sometimes) violent commentary they would never utter in a face-to-face situation. And these insults and threats never go away. They live in the Internet ether forever, easily accessed by potential employers, potential relationships, and anyone in the mood to do a Google search.” (Scheff, 2017).
What happened between Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton?
Monica Lewinsky secured a six-week internship at the White House through her mother’s connection with a wealthy friend named Walter Kaye. She submitted an essay, applied and was “delighted” to be accepted in the class of two hundred interns (Morton, 1999, p.53). After an arrival ceremony, Monica became smitten with President Clinton and tried to get a moment to meet with him. She claims he later stated in one of their private exchanges that “[he] knew one day [he] would kiss [her]” (Morton, 1999, p.58). Their affair started soon after with the President reaching out to Monica through phone calls, bringing her presents, and granting her access to the oval office. Monica would also gift President Clinton ties, and the flirtation and attraction eventually turned into love for Monica. (Morton, 1999). Monica was often perceived as being the sole participant in their relationship, but President Clinton’s actions towards her demonstrate that they were both at fault. The power dynamics were also unbalanced as Monica was an intern and he was her boss and there was a significant age gap between the two of them; however, Monica attests that it was a consensual relationship (Lewinsky, 2014). She was turned into a scapegoat to protect his position when the relationship entered the public media. She was a private citizen, and he was a public figure and her reputation was destroyed.
Did Monica Lewinsky seek fame from the scandal?
Monica Lewinsky had every intention of keeping the affair with President Clinton a secret. President Clinton also shared the same intention. After the President ended their eighteen-month affair, Monica found herself alone and without anyone to confide to in Washington. Her friends and family had decided to move and that is when she became enthralled with Linda Tripp, a co-worker at the Pentagon (Morton, 1999, p.118). Linda Tripp took control of Monica’s life during a time when she was depressed and isolated and gained her trust with an ulterior motive of writing a “tell-all” book about life in the white house (Morton, 1999, p.96). Tripp incessantly tried to get Monica to confess to having a flirtation with the President and she eventually caved and told her “I already had an affair with him and it’s over. I hope you don’t tell anyone.” Lewinsky confided the events of the affair and Tripp encouraged her to continue seeking out the President and ultimately get transferred back to the white house. With this false sense of hope, Monica continued to seek out the President and confiding in Tripp.
Tripp would eventually use a tape machine to record and entrap Monica into detailing the intimate details of her affair with the President (Morton, 1999, p.135). These tapes were turned in and used by special prosecutor Kenneth Starr after Tripp’s call (Morton, 1999, p.170). Later Tripp, wearing a body wire, would lure Monica to lunch in Pentagon City Mall and have two FBI agents ready to interrogate her.
Was the Clinton-Lewinsky affair merely a sex scandal?
On December 19, 1998, President Clinton was impeached as a result of lying under oath. He obstructed justice to cover up his affair with Lewinsky (Baker & Harris, 1998). Although he claimed on national television that he did not have sexual relations with “that woman”, and this was a private matter, after he lied under oath, it became a legal issue of perjury. President Clinton had lied to the American public. He had told Monica to “deny, deny, deny,” but after she was recorded and forced to turn over a dress with Clinton’s semen, he was unable to deny the truth (Morton, 1999).
How did the scandal impact Monica Lewinsky?
Although several reports and individuals argued that Lewinsky was attempting to advance her career through the affair with the President, the exposure hindered her job prospects. She went into hiding, distanced herself from the public, attempted to leave the country, and found it difficult to secure employment (Lewinsky, 2014). When she was transferred to the Pentagon in 1996 to a higher position, this was a direct consequence of her relationship with the President at her post in the White House (Morton, 1999, p.81). Lewinsky states that “traditional employment [was] not an option…and managed to barely get by at times” (Lewinsky 2014).
Lewinsky was publicly humiliated and in her darkest moments during the investigation and afterwards, she had “strong suicidal temptations.” (Lewinsky, 2014). The report by Kenneth Starr had explicit details about the sexual aspects of the relationship. Nothing seemed to be off limits, and Monica was used as a scapegoat for a politically motivated take down of the president by a republican counsel (Baker & Harris, 1998). Her unsent letters were printed in the press and her “sex” deposition which was supposed to be confidential was also published online (Morton, 1999, p.259).
In the media, late night talk show hosts “piled on the jokes and the nonstop media coverage [led her to be] publicly humiliated and bullied” (Finneman 2023). In a Vanity Fair article written by Lewinsky, she also states that she suffered from “post-traumatic stress disorder from having been publicly outed and ostracized” (Lewinsky, 2018).
https://youtu.be/ycf5oG1gNjM
References
Baker, P., & Harris, J. (1998, August 18). Clinton admits to Lewinsky relationship, challenges Starr to end personal ‘prying’ - the washington post. Clinton Admits to Lewinsky Relationship, Challenges Starr to End Personal ‘Prying.’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-impeachment/clinton-admits-lewinsky-relationship-challenges-starr-end-personal-prying/
Everbach, T., Finneman, T., Hirshon, N., & Ward, K. (2023, May 8). Monica Lewinsky and 1998 Newspaper Framing. Everbach Podcast: Journalism History. https://journalism-history.org/2023/05/08/everbach-podcast-monica-lewinsky-and-1998-newspaper-framing/
Lewinsky, M. (2014, May 28). Exclusive: Monica Lewinsky on the culture of humiliation. Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/style/society/2014/06/monica-lewinsky-humiliation-culture
Lewinsky, M. (2018, February 25). Monica Lewinsky: Emerging from “The house of gaslight” in the age of #metoo. Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/monica-lewinsky-in-the-age-of-metoo
Morton, A. (1999). Monica’s Story. Thorndike Press.
Scheff, S. (2017, October 27). Monica Lewinsky: Stepping up, speaking out. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/monica-lewinsky-stepping-up-speaking-out_b_59db722fe4b0cf2548b338f2