Men of Power and the Institutions that Protect Them

In defense of Monica Lewinsky

The year was 1998 and Capitol Hill was abuzz with the cacophonous sound of the rumor mill in what would be dubbed by some “Lewinsky-gate,” “Monica-gate,” and “Sex-gate.” It was a scandal that would set tongues wagging not only across the District of Columbia’s cloistered political community but across the entire world, culminating in a media firestorm. Was the president of the free world having an affair with his unpaid intern?

The story first broke on 17 January 1998 in the Drudge Report and quickly gathered momentum appearing in a mainstream media write-up in the Washington Post on 21 January 1998. Clinton was already in the shit for exploiting young women with the Paula Jones civil suit, involving a woman who alleged that Clinton had propositioned her and exposed himself to her on May 8, 1991, at the Excelsior Hotel, Arkansas. While I will not delve into the complex litigious history underscoring the case (and its appeals) it worth noting that it set a precedent that a sitting president is not immune from civil suit. After numerous complex legal skirmishes, Clinton eventually settled out of court for $850,000 USD.

In fact, rather disgustingly, it appears Clinton has a penchant for young women over whom he occupies a position of power. Lewinsky alleges she had nine sexual encounters with Clinton between November 1995 and March 1997. When initially confronted with affair rumors, Clinton famously denied them, stating, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman… these allegations are false.” Please see the astonishing denialism below:

https://youtu.be/VBe_guezGGc

Astoundingly, Hillary Clinton offered her unfettered support for her beleaguered husband’s plight, even suggesting this was all just a right-wing ploy to undermine her husband. She told NBC’s Today “The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast ring-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president.”

Adding to his legal woes Clinton perjured himself during his deposition in the Jones case by denying the Lewinsky affair. When presented with evidence (i.e., semen-stained dress) Clinton did not accept accountability or ownership for abuse of office, taking advantage of his intern or any other “moral failing.” Instead, he feigned ignorance regarding the definition of “sexual relations,” stating that he thought it precluded “oral sex.” Judge Susan Webber Wright held him in contempt of civil court for providing misleading testimony which culminated in the impeachment trial.

Clinton has never apologized to Lewinsky for abuse of post. In fact, like so many disgusting and morally bankrupt men of his ilk he, rather incredulously, thinks he’s the victim. In an interview given in 2018 he insisted he “did the right thing.” He further stated that he suffered significant deleterious financial consequences including footing a 16 million USD legal bill (does the obvious need to be pointed out that he would not have incurred such a bill if he had not had the affair or lied about it?). Commenting on the interview, journalist Monica Peck stated:

It could’ve been a moment of real self-reflection. Instead, Clinton elided responsibility for his actions, and declined to seriously wrestle with what happened through a modern lens.

“This is not the statement of accountability I wish he would’ve shown,” said Jennifer Freyd.

Instead, Clinton used a version of a strategy that Freyd calls “DARVO.” She coined the term in 1997, a year before the Lewinksy scandal broke on the home page of the Drudge Report. The abbreviation stands for Deny the behavior, attack the accuser, and reverse the roles of victim and offender.

In other words, when confronted with a credible accusation or a question about misconduct, you say it never happened, lash out against the victim and paint yourself as the one who is truly suffering.

Monica Peck, Journalist

Slut-Shamed

While the scandal itself was sufficiently bad enough, the personal aftermath for Miss Lewinsky was painful and heartening. She was relentlessly “slut-shamed,” vilified and over 128 rap songs contain reference to her. Not only is this dehumanizing and highly misogynistic, but the hate campaign also failed to take account of Miss Lewinsky’s vulnerability or the fact that the relationship constituted a gross abuse of power by a President of the United States.

Over the years Miss Lewinsky has gained her voice and confronted her tormentors. She has written a number of compelling op-ed pieces about consent in the context of a huge power differential. According to Lewinsky her relationship with Clinton was:

“An inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege.”

“Now, at 44, I’m beginning (just beginning) to consider the implications of the power differentials that were so vast between a president and a White House intern,”

“I’m beginning to entertain the notion that in such a circumstance the idea of consent might well be rendered moot.”

As a society Sleuth Hound believes that when the scandal broke, we should have afforded Lewinsky empathy, understanding and compassion. The focus of our collective ire should have always been Clinton’s reckless, selfish and frankly unacceptable behavior. He brought his office into disrepute. When it comes to so-called “affair-scandals” we are quick to slut-shame and blame the woman rather than hold the married man who broke his vows (and in this case breached the duties and responsibilities incumbent upon him) to account.

Perhaps the antecedents of the cognitive dissonance which unfairly casts women as to blame for men’s evils lay in some interpretations of Christian theology wherein it is deemed that woman is responsible for Original Sin. That is, according to some theological representations Eve is cast as the diabolical temptress who caused all of humanity to be ousted from the Garden of Eden, as if Adam was a completely innocent party with no agency. Such a view is all the more problematic and caustic in contexts where married men are abusing their positions of power and post to harm vulnerable women.

Thankfully, Monica appears to have transcended the wrath of haters. She gave a compelling TED talk entitled The Price of Shame. It can be viewed below:

The Sex Lives of the Rich, Famous and Evil

While the above might be horrifying enough, Bill Clinton’s potential involvement in other sex scandals is of concern. In the trial of controversial socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former pilot gave testimony that a sleuth of powerful men had connections to the predator-groomer. Famous names the witness dropped included, inter alia, Prince Andrew (no surprises), Clinton, Trump and Kevin Spacey.

It seems that power, privilege and sexual deviance is an intoxicating mix for some. Over the years I have watched with disgust and horror as the Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein revelations have unfurled before our eyes. While many may be familiar with the general factual matrix of each, it is worth a brief revisit for those who are not abreast of them.

In brief, Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax, was embroiled and later convicted in a horrifying sex scandal wherein he was found guilty of grooming numerous actresses. In October 2017, women began to come forward about Hervey Weinstein including Rose McGowan, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd. In total 80 women made serious allegations against the disgraced producer. It culminated in a trial wherein he had the proverbial legal book thrown at him but not before a number of his victims who testified experienced the inevitable slut-shaming and abuse of Weinstein’s vile defense counsel. Interestingly, the case did bring into sharp relief the need to repudiate the notion of the myth of the “perfect victim.” Many of Weinstein’s victims did not behave in a manner commensurate with how society deems women should behave in the wake of trauma or abuse. Such stereotypes must be denounced as entirely problematic.

Similarly, Epstein is another diabolical example of an evil man of power and privilege. A wealthy financier, Epstein procured and groomed numerous girls and women (often with the help of his right-hand woman Ghislaine Maxwell) for the rich and famous. He was found dead in his prison cell in August 2019 with some believing he was murdered because he knew too much. Out of that scandal other abusers have been unmasked including Prince Andrew (the famous “sweaty Prince” who allegedly lost his ability to sweat in the Falkland Wars). The Duke of York was forced to sell his ski chalet after entering a settlement earlier this year with Virginia Roberts. This week, in a confessional from her Florida prison cell, Ghislaine Maxwell contends that the famous photo with herself, Roberts and her “dear friend” Prince Andrew is a “fake.”

Undoubtedly, all of these men felt that they were entitled to abuse their position and privilege to exploit those less powerful than themselves. I am unsure what spurs such predatory mind-sets, but I can fervently state that these mentalities are deeply deleterious for the many female victims that have come forward (and those that are too afraid to speak out).

One positive upshot of the attention given to the aforesaid cases is that it has catalyzed greater attention on such abuses of power. While the MeToo movement started much earlier, it did not gather significant momentum until after these scandals came to light. In the wake of the MeToo movement there has been significant meaningful discourse and dialogue on sexual abuse of women. However, abysmal conviction rates and a failure of police forces to understand victimology tells me that we have a long way to go.

The Need for Reform

While the aforementioned scandals have certainly generated attention on the issues, arguably significant work needs to be done to redress the issue of men abusing their positions of power. Many jurisdictions do not have express abuse of power laws and, even if they do, in some cases the provisions are drafted vaguely and are not well understood by police officers and therefore they are rarely invoked.

Grooming, source: Google

Sleuth Hound believes that rigorous anti-grooming and abuse of power laws need to be introduced and that regulators, law enforcement and other agencies need to be extensively trained in how to identify and deal with these situations. Moreover, accountability needs to be squarely placed where it belongs, that is, on the men who abuse their positions of power not on their female victims.