First of all, let me say I'm loath to use Ms. Lewinsky's name in the title of this blog post, because her name is getting bandied about too much these days. The Vanity Fair article made her fair game, once again, although I don't really think she ever got off the target board, not for the past 16 years. And when VF landed in my mailbox, I admit I grabbed it first so I could read her piece.
She is clearly an intelligent woman. Her reality appears to be grounded and well-reasoned. Her victimization at the hands of Mr. Starr (the special prosecutor), Bill Clinton and the Dems, political pundits and satirists, feminists and columnists ( the list could go on and on and on...),didn't destroy her, but it almost did. And it made her very cautious. Who can blame her? Why her punishment for the Clinton affair has carried a term longer than child murderers receive (case in point: today's paper reported that a woman who killed her six month old baby got three years in prison. Big whoop.) is rooted in gender and politics and sex, which she has discerned.
Why didn't women stick up for her when she was a twenty-something swept into the charisma of Bill Clinton? Where were the feminists to defend her? Why did another woman, Linda Tripp, betray her? Was it because she seemed so open, so vulnerable, so pretty? The ravening dogs attacked because they could. Was it because it involved oral sex, one of those naughty things you didn't talk about sixteen years ago? Yes, I think she was pretty then, and she's more beautiful now at forty. Women are their own worst enemies sometimes (though events in Nigeria would say otherwise). Was she a stalker? I doubt it. A narcissistic loony toon? Oh, Hillary. Grow up. You have been diminished in my eyes by using that label.
Powerful men. Young, pretty women. The two have been entwined forever. Give the woman a break, and let it go. I hope Ms. Lewinsky runs for political office and wins. Big time. She's been through the fire and lived to tell the tale. She'd be awesome.
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