14 DAY TRIAL // With the whole Ebola scare going on these days, we would like to change the tune and take you back to what was possibly the biggest scandal of the ‘90s, the Monica Lewinsky affair with President Bill Clinton which shook the White House and the entire American political class to its core.
Monica Lewinsky, who has decided to reemerge on the public stage after many years of hiding, spoke on the entire affair during a speech on Monday, October 20. Probably the most shocking detail she touched upon in her discussion was that she was actually in love with Clinton at the time they had the affair, something which was previously unknown.
Forbes quotes her as saying “I fell in love with my boss. Only, my boss was the President of the United States.” While this does clear up some of the issues, the real purpose of her public speech was to launch her campaign to end cyberbullying, as well as today's toxic internet culture of shaming.
The former White House intern promised to launch a “cultural revolution,” pointing out that she has first-hand experience with online harassment. She reminded everyone that “I was Patient Zero. The first person to have their reputation completely destroyed worldwide via the internet.”
The 41-year-old also pointed out that “There was no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram back then. But there were gossip, news and entertainment websites replete with comment sections and emails which could be forwarded. Of course, it was all done with the excruciatingly slow dial up. Yet around the world this story went. A viral phenomenon that, you could argue, was the first moment of truly ‘social media.’”
The speaker revealed how this moment left her ashamed and feeling suicidal for years and it was visible that the scandal had a deep effect on her still, because she became emotional when she disclosed how she spent the entire day shouting at the computer screen as she sat and read from the now famous Starr Report, “Staring at the computer screen, I spent the day shouting, ‘Oh my God!’ and ‘I can’t believe they put that in. That’s so out of context.’”
This is not the first time Lewinsky addresses the matter publicly. Earlier this year, she wrote an essay for the June issue of Vanity Fair in which she mentioned that she got over her suicidal thoughts by finding out about the tragic death of Tyler Clementi, a gay Rutgers University student who decided to take his own life after he was publicly humiliated by classmates on the internet.
That's when she decided that she was going to use her experience and help others cope with being bullied on the internet. “The tragedy is one of the principal reasons I am standing up here today. Having survived myself, what I want to do now is help other victims of the shame game survive too.”