http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=466050747&m=466437192
I’d like to believe that there is something bigger than us in the universe than just us humans running around aimlessly on earth having no sense of purpose, direction, or meaning. Therefore I would like to believe that I had heard this story when I needed to hear it the most, with one of the people who I feel most comfortable with in my life I’d like to believe it was for a reason. One of the biggest recognized stories of sexual shame appearing in not only American culture, but politics as well has been the Bill Clinton scandal in 1998 where twenty four Monica Lewinsky went from having a privatized life to a public figure of shame, literally overnight. On NPR, during Ted Radio Hour, she spoke publicly addressing her own story and her courage must be acknowledged. This story had hit me on so many levels that it was as if I had drove into a brick wall rather than to brunch on Valentine’s Day. I had three reactions. First, I had empathized for Monica Lewinsky because society does not recognize the object that we have defined her as. Secondly, I had expressed my almost hidden form of anger for her misconstrued judgments about shame appearing in politics. And lastly, I had started crying due to the own shame that I have been trying to face on my own recently. While I was listening I expressed my feelings to my boyfriend (sorry if I talk about him a lot but he’s like my other half so he’s become part of the story) Nick, and I said “everything that she (Lewinsky) is saying can be identified and represent the queer community as well.” This was my reaction to the following:
“What that meant for me personally was that overnight, I went from being a completely private figure, to a publicly humiliated one worldwide … the attention and judgement that I had received, not the story but that I personally received was unprecedented … I was seen by many, but known by few.” (3:50-5:00)
Here I have labeled repetitions in blue, clusters, in orange, and red. Then the word that had infuriated me in purple. Once I heard this spoken I had recognized the shame the Monica had received publicly and the depths that she had experienced personally, however unprecedented shares a great deal of ignorance. I immediately thought of Michael Warner’s article “The Trouble With Normal” and within the prefix expressed the entirety of my anger. He says “For this reason the world has much to learn from the disreputable queers who have the most experience in the politics of shame, but who for that very reason have been least likely to gain a hearing..” (VII). Here I found clusters that related directly back to Monica Lewinsky’s quote. And while I applaud her for coming to terms with her own pass and embracing the shame that I can’t imagine enduring, I also would like to critique her for not recognizing an entire community who faces the same level of shame every day within their own lives: queer culture. She also says “It’s very hard to be in your own skin while suffering from shame.” I think Lewinsky can do a great deal more by bringing awareness to the lack of representation in the political realm, rather than just promoting anti bullying awareness, which is important, but I just believe she can do much more. Like she said, it was time to come to term with her own past, but it’s also time for a new recognition of individuals in the public world, without shame.
Last semester I had to read Professor Farrell’s book “Fat Shame” for my American Studies methods class, and, unsurprising from the title, there was a chapter about specific national instances of fat shame in American media, and Monica Lewinsky’s scandal was one of the major topics discussed. While it was a classic heterosexual affair between a young women and her much older boss, the situation was of course complicated by Clinton’s presidency, but also the fact that Monica did not fit the archetype of the young seductress, as she was fat and recognizably Jewish, and was attacked for both of those things by the media. It’s interesting that she didn’t bring up either of those things in the NPR piece (I listened to the whole thing lol). Of course this is not necessarily “queer” narrative, but it’s definitely not a typical one.