Monica Lewinsky speaks her complex truth, finally

Intern: Lewinsky, left, in the White House with Bill Clinton

So, Monica. That woman. And what do we think of her? Everyone’s got an opinion of Ms Lewinsky, and now she’s back in the news with a TV drama that centres on her side of the story. Personally, I think she’s magnificent. Bring her on.

This is a women whose name was dragged through the mud in 1998 after US president Bill Clinton “did not have sexual relations with that woman”. He was in his late 40s, Lewinsky her mid-20s. The Clintons picked themselves up, dusted themselves down and moved right on. Lewinsky’s life has been stained ever since by the complexity of that tumultuous time. In 2014 she wrote: “When news of my affair with Bill Clinton broke I was arguably the most humiliated person in the world.” And Bill? Not so much.

Limelight: Lewinsky at the Hollywood premiere of Impeachment: American Crime Story this month. Picture: Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images

“…The attention and judgment I received – not the story, but that I personally received – was unprecedented,” Lewinsky explained in a TED talk in 2015. “I was branded as a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo and, of course, ‘that woman’. I was known by many, but actually known by few. I get it. It was easy to forget ‘that woman’ was dimensional and had a soul.”

Now she’s produced a TV drama for the #MeToo era. Impeachment: American Crime Story tells her truth from a time when no one was interested. Who she really was. How she was affected. How she coped or didn’t. During the scandal she had been staying at Washington’s Watergate Hotel, of all places, with her mother, who kept a night-time vigil because Lewinsky was distraught and suicidal.

She’s tried her hand at many careers since those times but it’s been hard to gain job security and legitimacy. Asked recently about her most treasured possession, she quipped: “My mental health.” She’s now a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and has formed a production company, Alt Ending. Nice. She’s determined to take control of her narrative after her reputation was trashed. Courageous.

Lewinsky’s 10-part drama has just begun streaming on Australian television. She wants to write her own story in history rather than have it written for her. Women like her are expected to quietly fade away into shame and obscurity but she’s held her head high and fought back with warmth, courage and wit. A few years ago, on Twitter, she was asked, “What’s the worst career advice you’ve ever received?” She shot back, “An internship at the White House will be amazing on your résumé.”

Nowadays the blame would be far more likely to fall on the middle-aged man with all the power, as opposed to the young, wide-eyed intern who had none. But from the catastrophe of a youthful mistake Lewinsky has fought to retain control. She’s not fading away into infamy, not letting the media have ownership of her story.

I love this story of now – women who’ve been publicly written off and trashed who are reinventing themselves. Speaking their complex truth, finally. It’s a triumph of our times. Monica Lewinsky. Sinead O’Connor. Britney Spears. What’s really going on there? The media were so quick to judge back then, so eager to accept the manipulated narrative that often had little relation to the truth of the person at the raging centre of it. Who are these complicated, intelligent, blazing females, really? Women who refused invisibility, quietness, compliance and meekness; the obedience that the world wanted to impose upon them.

It’s a peculiar hell to be the centre of a media narrative that has no bearing on your reality. How do you climb out of it; how do you tell your truth when the world doesn’t want to hear because it doesn’t fit their version of the story? Monica could have gone quietly. Disappeared. As fallen women are expected to. It’s her turn now, with the wisdom that comes of maturity. She persisted. Spoke her truth, and has not been destroyed in the process. Good on her.