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I remember when Monica Lewinsky became the modern version of Hester Prynne. I remember feeling sorry for her, and hating Linda Tripp for being such a dishonest friend. But honestly, the scandal between Lewinsky and Clinton didn't bother me one bit; what consenting adults do is no concern of the public's, in my opinion. Then, I never really thought about her again after the scandal died down.
Last week, The Guardian published "The Shame Sticks To You Like Tar," about Lewinsky's life post-Clinton, and what she has done to wrest some control of her life. It is a great read, and I highly recommend it, because it is sad, inspiring, depressing, uplifting, and promising. "Lewinsky was once among the 20th century’s most humiliated people, ridiculed across the world. Now she’s a respected and perceptive anti-bullying advocate. She gives talks at Facebook, and at business conferences, on how to make the internet more compassionate. She helps out at anti-bullying organisations like Bystander Revolution, a site that offers video advice on what to do if you’re afraid to go to school, or if you’re a victim of cyberbullying." Lewinsky's life is a perfect example of finding yourself in a wasteland, feeling the victim, seeing no way out, then finding the path, painful though it is, back to some semblance of normal. Because of her efforts against cyberbullying, the Guardian interviewed her, and one of the most honest things she said was in response to how she would be treated had the scandal occurred today. The journalist suggested that people would not be so quick to condemn her since we have been made aware of slut-shaming and putting women down. And people are much more concerned with misogyny against women that the men perpetrating it would be called out. Lewinsky responded: “A lot of vicious things that happen online to women and minorities do happen at the hands of men,” she says, “but they also happen at the hands of women. Women are not immune to misogyny.” Lewinsky is spot on. As much as many of us wrap ourselves in the mantle of feminism and call for equal rights, there is an astonishing number of studies that show women don't always walk the walk. For example, a 2013 study showed that women prefer working for male bosses by a 13% margin; in 2014, Wired Magazine ran an article detailing how women and men are virtually equal in their use of misogynist terms on Twitter; and another 2013 study determined that promiscuous women receive plenty of criticism from other women, even other promiscuous women. Lewinsky would know about misogyny. It was a woman friend who betrayed her, she was reviled by men and women alike, and comics, male and female, felt no compunction about using her pain and suffering for their own advantage. She has commented that feminists were particularly cruel to her. Today, Lewinsky has been referred to as the first person to be destroyed by the Internet. But she has found a way to overcome the bullying she faced as a child and as an adult by becoming the spokesperson, so to speak, against cyberbullying. Her Ted Talk has had nearly 8 million views, and she speaks regularly about her ordeal in order to help others find their own way through their difficulties and shaming. It is so horrible to read about what that poor woman went through. It is so sad to see how a young woman of 22 was abandoned when the country's most powerful people used her for their own political advantage. But it is truly inspiring to read about the strength that woman found, eventually, to stand up to the shame she was burdened with, and address the issues that hurt her most so that others can find ways of escaping their pain and shame.
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There is so much discussion in the political world these days about Clinton's 1996 comment about bringing the super predators to heel, and Bill Clinton's subsequent defense of her comments a few days ago. I must admit that I understand Bill Clinton's defense. At the time Hillary Clinton made that comment, we saw on television every night news stories about violence in the inner cities, drive-by shootings, crazy crack addicts, innocent people being shot and killed while sitting on their stoops or walking to school. As a white woman, it was understandable to me then and now that there was something problematic in the black community, and something needed to be done. As Bill Clinton said, "I don't know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out into the street to murder other African American children. Maybe you thought they were good citizens. She didn't."
That is the easy reaction to this political hot topic. Twenty years later, however, we should be able to look back with a different perspective and reflect on what happened in the early 1990s. Today, one thing that strikes me about the coverage at that time AND today is that the news implies that the violence in the 1990s stems from black populations going wild; from bad black males who are out to hurt their communities in order to earn money, power and fame; from some natural internal deviance that had to be tamed. So based on this narrative, Clinton and the Conservative Republican Congress passed laws that put more black men in prison, that demanded harsher sentences for crack cocaine than powder cocaine, that pushed people off welfare and made them more desperate, that cut funding for programs like after-school care that could provide safe environments for kids as well as offer mentoring. Twenty years later, there is enough evidence to show that Clinton's policies did more to hurt poor people and the black community, all based on the idea that it was bad individuals rather than policies that were the major cause of violence. "On the campaign trail, Bill Clinton made the economy his top priority and argued persuasively that conservatives were using race to divide the nation and divert attention from the failed economy. In practice, however, he capitulated entirely to the right-wing backlash against the civil-rights movement and embraced former president Ronald Reagan’s agenda on race, crime, welfare, and taxes—ultimately doing more harm to black communities than Reagan ever did. " (1) As a white woman, I can never understand the full import of the policies that destroyed our inner cities and contributed to the violence that disproportionately affected the black communities. But there are people who have researched it. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. Poverty? Yes. Globalisation? Yes. Poor education? Yes. The break up of the family? Yes. A lack of opportunity? Yes. And there are so many other reasons. Each community has its own diverse history and factors that contribute to the problems faced by its communities. The problem for me is that none of our candidates are talking deeply about why these social problems exist and how to solve them. We know what the Conservative candidates want and will do--namely cut taxes for the wealthy, cut government programs that serve the poor, eliminate government agencies that protect our environment, round up immigrants and send them home, take away voting rights for minorities, hand more control of the services people rely on to for-profit companies, eliminate a woman's ability to regulate her own body and control her future by ending abortion and access to contraception; in other words, they want to cut more and more programs to push more people into poverty (no, they don't SAY they want to push people into poverty, but 35 years of tax cuts and government program cuts have done just that). I've watched the debates, and I don't know what Democrats will do. Sure, they won't do a lot of what the Republican conservatives would do, but I want our Democratic Party to have a vision, to offer solutions that people can get behind. How will they counter the negative effects resulting from the existing free trade agreements? Do they really expect manufacturing to return to the US, and if not, how DO Americans compete in the modern world? What is the role of government? Why was Reagan wrong when he said "the nine most terrifying words are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help?' " This blog is about empowerment, and if anyone needs empowerment these days, it is Democrats. Thanks to the Clintons, Democrats have lost their way and embraced the memes and philosophy of conservatives. I'm willing to forgive and understand Clinton for her super predator comments; we all make mistakes. But her answer--and her husband's defense of her answer and his policies-- shows a lack of reflection. It was a knee-jerk defensive response when it could have been an opportunity to reflect on the unintended consequences of policies that seemed to be appropriate at the time. Most importantly, it could have been an effort by Hillary Clinton to show that she has learned, evolved, and matured in her understanding of the policies in the 80s and 90s so that she would respond as president in a more refined and nuanced way. But she didn't. And I worry that, like her husband, she will argue "persuasively that conservatives were using race to divide the nation and divert attention from the failed economy," but then just continue with the same old mindset and the same old policies that brought us to the economic decline that has diminished the middle class, destroyed many black communities and motivated so many people to rise up in protest of the status quo that Republicans and Democrats are offering us. (1) http://www.thenation.com/article/hillary-clinton-does-not-deserve-black-peoples-votes/ |
AuthorI am a yoga instructor, author and activist. I wrote The Diamond Tree to inspire women to take chances. Even if the outcome of any given risk is different than expected, there is something for the community and the individual to gain from it. Archives
May 2020
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