The price of shame | Monica Lewinsky

In this edition of #todayinposh, I am sharing a TED talk by Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern. She talks about her struggles after she was publicly shamed in the aftermath of the Clinton affair.

This was probably one of the first instance where a scandal had got worldwide notoriety, overnight. In this video, she talks about how her reputation was completely destroyed due to internet and how it broke her, mentally and emotionally.

After the scandal, she became a recluse. She says,

"Overnight I went from being a completely private person to being completely publicly humiliated."

The scandal happened at a time when we were all getting introduced to the internet and a lot of us were complicit in making jokes about her (and about interns, in general). But, when I revisited the incident again, it got me thinking about the whole notion of consent in relation with power dynamics (he was after all the most powerful man in the world).

It is a really powerful talk and the reason I am sharing it is because, even in 2021, victims of sexual harassment are hesitant to come out with their complaints. Various studies have pointed out that fear of retaliation is one major reason why they do not come forward. One survey of federal workers found that two-thirds of women who had reported their harassers were subsequently assaulted, taunted, subjected to non-stop jokes, trolled, demoted, or fired by their harassers or friends of their harassers.

This kind of retaliation has long-term effects. Women who file harassment complaints end up, on average, in worse jobs and poorer physical and mental health than women who keep quiet.

And retaliation may be the only thing many victims get after filing a grievance, because most procedures protect the accused better than they protect victims.