Remember Monica Lewinsky? Yes, that Monica Lewinsky—the former White House intern who had an affair with then-President Bill Clinton? The one who saved her dress that had Clinton’s DNA all over it? Well, apparently she has risen from obscurity and is now telling her story to Vanity Fair.
Why now, you ask?
Lewinsky wants to be a mouthpiece for victims of public humiliation. She says that the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University student who was outted after his roommate posted a video of him kissing another guy, was the driving force for her to give hope to people who have been humiliated. She’s also setting the record straight about the highly publicized presidential affair.
Lewinsky wrote that the affair was consensual and she wasn’t given hush money by the Clintons afterward. Ten years later, Lewinksy says, it’s still hard for her because of the publicity she received. Employers have shied away from hiring her “because of what potential employers so tactfully referred to as my ‘history,’” she writes. “I was never ‘quite right’ for the position. In some cases, I was right for all the wrong reasons, as in ‘Of course, your job would require you to attend our events.’ And, of course, these would be events at which press would be in attendance.”
Want to know what else Lewinsky is doing? She’s putting her London School of Economics education to good use by offering Beyoncé grammar lessons!
You see, Lewinsky knows about all of those pop-culture references she’s mentioned in. Most recently Queen Bey mentioned her in the song “Partition,” from her latest album, Beyoncé. In the song, Beyoncé says, “He popped all my buttons, and he ripped my blouse/He Monica Lewinsky-ed all on my gown.” According to Lewinsky and her dress, it’s not a correct use of the verb.
“Thanks, Beyoncé, but if we’re verbing, I think you meant ‘Bill Clinton’d all on my gown,’ not ‘Monica Lewinsky’d,’” she writes.
Lewinsky apparently hasn’t heard of the “Beygency,” because right about now they’re sending out their signal for attack.
I applaud Lewinsky for being able to keep track of all of the pop references made about her, but I’m quite sure more people are wondering what she did with the infamous DNA dress than with correct verb usage.
Yesha Callahan is editor of The Grapevine and a staff writer at The Root. Follow her on Twitter.
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