Zoom: Pop Culture in Focus

Lewinsky in esteemed company

by Rumaan Alam

When the Clintons took up residence at America's most famous address in 1992, one newspaper reported an increase in the number of Americans naming their newborn daughters Chelsea. I wonder how many baby girls born this year were saddled with the name Monica.

My guess is not so many. Badmouthing Monica Lewinsky has become an national pastime, and an unfair one at that. I mean, it's fine to name your daughter after the presidential offspring, even though she has not really done anything to change the course of history. But can anyone dispute that, as the century draws to a close, Monica Lewinsky is one of the most influential Americans among us? She deserves some namesake, some prot�g� in the next generation.

Who are the Americans who have changed our society's notions of sex the most? There are the usual suspects, the feminist icons like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, the bad girls like Helen Gurley Brown and Madonna. There are Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt, Alfred Kinsey and Jocelyn Elders. All Americans must concede that these people have had an important impact, even if they dislike Hustler or Cosmopolitan or the racy Justify My Love video. And Monica Lewinsky belongs in this esteemed company.

Monica has not changed simply this society's attitudes about sex, which has long been Madonna's fort�. She has done something far more interesting. She has changed our definitions of sex. She has become the face with which we can associate the destruction of the battles won during the sexual revolution in the past thirty years. The neo-Puritanism which currently defines politics is mostly a result of the Clinton affair, an affair to remember if ever there was one. Try and forget - Monica is with us to stay.

Now both parties are going to have to offer America boring and bland candidates, the kind of people unlikely to have any sex at all. Candidates like Elizabeth Dole and Al Gore. (Come on, don't we all, deep down, want a sexy first couple? If George and Barbara Bush looked more like Warren Beatty and Annette Benning, you can bet they would have hung around for more than one term.) And now here we sit, in an age where all politics is reacting to the advances made since the sexual revolution in the 1960s. Because no matter how liberal our society seems to be getting, there are still powerful people in this country who simply abhor the idea of sex. Don't believe for a minute that this impeachment is about perjury and abuse of power. It's about blow jobs.

So, yes, Monica is responsible for this shift against sexuality. But more importantly, for me at least, she has changed sex. Sex is not sex anymore; it is "sexual relations," deemed either "appropriate" or "inappropriate" by a federally appointed prosecutor and a grand jury. I'm not so sure I have it right. I can't figure out if Clinton did or did not have sex with Lewinsky. I don't know what that means. I had no idea there were laws about this kind of thing, spelling out every last word.

I respect anyone with that kind of power. And I honestly like Monica Lewinsky. I feel so bad for her. I mean, we all know we shouldn't kiss and tell, but who among us hasn't at least once? I know I have, and I know it's come back to haunt me later. But I've never had to testify in front of strangers, I've never had a play by play of my dalliances published and read by the 500 odd people who run this country.

Monica brings out a certain protective instinct in me. I hate to hear pundits on television make fun of her weight or physical appearance. And I don't mean comedians like Leno and Letterman - that's their job. Beating up on Monica is the in thing to do. She's not really that ugly, is she? I actually think she's kind of attractive, even if she does look like a walking Donna Karan ad. And she's no dumb bimbo either. I would love to have a sexual relationship with a President. How great would you feel about yourself? Enough of the victim feminists yelling about how sad the whole situation is: I'm proud of Monica. The mistake she made was not in getting involved with Clinton, it was in chatting about it with Linda Tripp. Has anyone wondered if perhaps this whole situation is hurting her feelings? How would it feel to never be able to speak to someone with whom you were once very intimate?

Ultimately, Monica has simply gotten caught up in something bigger than she and President Clinton. Everyday, listening to the impeachment trials on NPR makes me love Clinton more. I wish he could run for another term, and appoint Lewinsky Surgeon General. She could pick up where Jocelyn Elders left off, and really help this country relax about sex.

Monica no different than the rest of us

by Alisa Heiman

Remember the Iran Contra Affair? The "We Are the World" campaign? Think hard and try this one: do you remember learning about the Cold War and those scary Russians in elementary school? Yeah. That was the 80s.

Now what about the 90s? Desert Storm was a political event that received adequate media attention, and even Bosnia got some good air time. Alright, then - 90s media hasn't always sucked so hard. Monica Lewinsky, however, has.

And she has changed media forever. Or, rather, media has changed her forever. They call her chubs and, tuning out Monica, newscasters dub over her voice to chat about her baby fat instead. Charming, ain't it?

The media won't dare reveal the possiblity of a right-wing conservative conspiracy. That is, until Linda Tripp comes forward in the next millenium to admit that she was paid off by members of the Republican party to tape her conversations with Monica. Imagine the joy of watching a media heyday rerun!

So what's this crap all about? Many Americans maintain that Little Miss Monica finally got what she wanted. Interesting that anybody would know just what it is that Monica has always wanted. They've only known her for a couple of years, and just from the cheeky picture of Monica congratulating Clinton on his presidency displayed in the upper right corner of television screens everywhere on the noon, 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 news.

I don't get it. Why is Monica any different than Gennifer Flowers or Paula Jones? Because she solicited "not-sex" from Clinton and the others were approached unwantedly? That would make Clinton less of a scum in this case. So what's the big deal about Monica?

Okay, let's return again to the late 80s and early 90s. Remember how many little sluts made their way through your middle school and high school classes? Remember those parties where our adolescent chums snuck into the host's bedroom? Personally, I can count a bunch of acquaintances who had done the nasty with a handful of boys before they even got their driving permits.

If Monica is as promiscuous as she is said to be, then why is it any worse to give oral sex to Clinton than to somebody else? True, most people wouldn't express themselves in such a manner. But for a promiscuous woman, why not shoot for the top? Honestly, doling out blow jobs in the Oval Office is less than responsible. Receiving them as the leader of a superpower, however, is downright irresponsible. Likewise, becoming "sexually involved" with a married man could be emotionally disappointing. (Not to mention sexually disappointing in Monica's case - thou shall give and please, give and please, and perhaps receive a pleasurable cigar or a little "genital contact" in return.)

The point here is that Monica was a nobody. She's just like women and girls all over the country. Plenty of CEOs, program directors and high school teachers receive oral pleasure from women and girls who are young and eager. Clinton has clearly got an itch in his pants that Hillary doesn't satisfy - if it weren't Monica, it would have been somebody else.

Yet Monica has hit the press with a speed and fervor faster than could ever have been imagined in the 80s. Why? I doubt Monica's thrilled about the defamation of her name. Such publicity about Monica could not be helping Hillary and Bill's married life and polls east and west confirm that media viewers north and south, left and right are fed up with Monica headlines and Clinton magazine covers.

Oh really? Does that mean that those of us with "higher standards" will have the courage to conquer our voyeuristic tendencies on the night that Babsie Walters interviews Monica Lewinsky? It will be Monica's first appearance in a public one-on-one interview, an episode which is sure to achieve amazingly high ratings. Monica: the world's most interesting woman ... and what about her is so special?

Nothing.

When she began her internship at the White House she was nothing. When she fellated the President she was nothing. When Linda Tripp got her paws on those tapes, however, Monica was everything. Monica became a seductress, an ugly hag, a young whore. Monica became a scandal.

And now that her character has been blasphemized over and over again, Monica has returned to nothing ... with an edge. She is no longer an individual. Rather, she is the star of the stars, more entertaining than even the Golden Globes. But nobody respects her. Monica Lewinsky appears to be the joke of the century.

Wishful thinking. The United States is the joke of the century. We are a superpower obsessed with a real-life soap-opera, a continuing Primary Colors. In short, Monica is more significant to our country's well-being than the fact that we bombed Iraq.

Refreshing, no? Forty percent of the world's economies are in recession. Eh, screw it. The younger generations are learning morals from Kenneth Starr. Well, at least they're not our children. King Hussein of Jordan died of cancer - pretty important for middle-eastern relations. Lucky for us that primary stations did cover it on Sunday morning for a spell before returning to the risqu� sex life of President Clinton. It's a sex life Clinton probably wishes he were still enjoying.

"Ahh, remember those days?" he might wimper to himself. The times when oral sex spiced up international phone calls. Those moments when walking down the hall was exciting! And, truly, those nights when Clinton could nibble and suck on his own, very special cigar.

Sorry for the loss, Billy Boy. Can we get on with it now?

(photos courtesy Vanity Fair Magazine)