No, Monica, you (& Bill) were not alone. I & we were there, too, "#MeToo" as it were [View all]
Two things I don't have to prove, what a good Democratic believer on nearly all the laundry list of issues and on Equality for all (here, specifically, on supporting women - I could go on & on about the strong women in my family and the women candidates I have supported) - I am.
You and Bill BOTH rocked my world in a very bad, PTSD way. I blamed you BOTH, but despite what you went through my quandary was not being socially allowed to blame you for your part while having to defend Bill at the cost of channeling all my political energy into HIM while giving up the work on our Democratic agenda. I would have liked to throw a crystal ashtray at both your heads.
I still have carved in my sight your right palm taking the oath to testify while the journalist voiceover called you a child who was beyond responsibility despite your legal adulthood.
After all the years, I came around to letting Bill go, my being freed from having to support him and his crappy behavior and choices. As I say, since we were prohibited from criticizing you, I had long ago let you go. But in the years when you have resurfaced, I haven't gotten a vibe of your taking your share of responsibility, although I haven't paid much attention.
I will add my own little vignette from the same era: How I was a supervisor in my late 40s and a 24 year old I had hired came on to me repeatedly and I shut it down, such that I was no Bill. Within 3 or so years she not only replaced me in my job but became the top administrator (my superiors weren't so principled about handling her advances). I never made an issue of her career machinations any more than I did about your love and admiration.
But I am deeply invested in not buying into your #MeToo incarnation, any more than all the PTSD all of us were forced into by you and Bill for your short term jollies. Leave me alone.
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https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/monica-lewinsky-in-the-age-of-metoo
BY MONICA LEWINSKY
MARCH 2018
.... A student of Karma, I found myself seizing the moment. Whereas a decade ago I would have turned and fled the restaurant at the prospect of being in the same place as this man, many years of personal-counseling work (both trauma-specific and spiritual) had led me to a place where I now embrace opportunities to move into spaces that allow me to break out of old patterns of retreat or denial. ....
And the 20th anniversary of an annus horribilis that would almost end Clinton’s presidency, consume the nation’s attention, and alter the course of my life. ....
...a person who has been gaslighted.
To be blunt I was diagnosed several years ago with post-traumatic stress disorder, mainly from the ordeal of having been publicly outed and ostracized back then. ....
"I'm so sorry you were so alone.” Those seven words undid me. They were written in a recent private exchange I had with one of the brave women leading the #MeToo movement. ....
...I am unpacking and reprocessing what happened to me. Over and over and over again. ....
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