Slut.
This is the word we branded young White House intern Monica Lewinsky with in 1998- when arguably the most popular political sex scandal broke. Although alive but only 3-years-old, I remember vividly learning about this scandal in history classes and through the internet growing up. It's almost a vital part of learning about the Clinton presidency- his infamous lie claiming "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" not even giving Lewinsky the respect to call her by her name. We learn about the sexual acts that were done, the articles of clothing worn, but we never learn about the power dynamic that could possibly give us a different view of the entire situation. We never learn how Lewinsky was the first real example of how our society has an inherent problem slut shaming. We publicly shame Lewinsky for the relationship that was consensual, only thinking negatively about one party involved.
Although back in the 1990's the term slut-shaming was not yet developed and understood, Lewinsky was the first and prime example. We hear of the 22-year-old dumbly falling for the president and the affair they had. Then it becoming found, exploited and we cast Lewinsky off as a "dirty slut" forever damaged and never to be seen in a different light. Fast forward in 2016, where there are over 160 rap songs referencing Monica Lewinsky's name and sexual acts, over 170 magazines that she has been on the cover of, and still a constant feeling of shame and embarrassment, all for being the "slutty" White House intern. It's impossible to not bring up Monica Lewinsky and her scandal now that Hillary Clinton is in the news every day with her presidential running. Let me say, I am a Hillary Clinton supporter, 100%. I do NOT think we should be associating Hillary's success or running with anything that happened with Lewinsky, but it is an important part of her past, her husbands past, and collectively something that is going to be continually brought up.
It's important to look at how the media talked about Lewinsky after the news story broke. On top of being called "a little tart," "ditzy" and being branded as someone "who paid special attention to the boys" by various news outlets, fox did her no justice either. They created a poll asking wether Lewinsky was an "average girl" or a "young tramp looking for thrills" to which 54% of Americans called her a tramp. She not only had to live with the fact she was known as a slut by her co-workers and the President, she was known as a slut by every American, worldwide. We created a society in which is was okay to look negatively upon Lewinsky without hearing her side of the story, looking further into the story or considering the relationship was mutual, regardless if the other party was the President Of The US. We as a society branded Lewinsky as a Slut. A slut by definition is a woman who has many casual sexual partners or women of unclean society. Neither of which are true-- considering Lewinsky had only one sexual partner at the time. Although we have tried to reclaim the word, it is not working and the word slut is still seen as bad, something someone does not want to be. She was the definition of the term double standard, and this was only the beginning. We enhanced and accepted slut shaming Lewinsky.
Lewinsky came out with a Ted Talk called "the price of shame" in which she talks about how the word slut has impacted her and her lasting encounters in life. She says in the talk "I was branded as a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo and of course, that woman. I was known by man, but actually known by few. I get it. It was easy to forget that woman was dimensional and had a soul." And that's where we screwed up as Americans. We forgot Lewinsky was real. She made mistakes. She fell victim to a VERY powerful man. And not once do we blame Clinton, we actually see him as America's most loved liar. Lewinsky has had trouble getting jobs, becoming a respected member of society and for awhile after the affair, even leaving her own home. We need to end the usage of the word slut because it has lasting impacts. Young girls who make mistakes are not sluts, they are not "unclean" and they should not be branded as such.
