MONICA LEWINSKY: ‘THE SHAME STICKS TO YOU LIKE TAR:’

A year ago she gave a TED talk about being the object of the first great internet shaming: “Overnight, I went from being a completely private figure to a publicly humiliated one worldwide. Granted, it was before social media, but people could still comment online, email stories, and, of course, email cruel jokes. I was branded as a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo, and, of course, ‘that woman’. It was easy to forget that ‘that woman’ was dimensional, had a soul, and was once unbroken.” Lewinsky’s talk was dazzling and now gets taught in schools alongside Nathaniel Hawthorn’s The Scarlet Letter. I can think of nobody I’d rather talk to about the minutiae of online bullying – who does it and why, the turmoil it can spark, and how to make things better.

As Bethany S. Mandel of the Federalist tweets in response for those who’ve forgotten the “fun” of the 1990s, “The Clintons destroy lives and ‘feminists’ were all to happy to help.” Quoting the above paragraph, Stephen Miller adds, “Lewinsky still seemingly oblivious to the media and party responsible for her bullying.”