August 1, 2014

Monica Lewinsky is now "officially contributing to Vanity Fair's website on an 'ongoing basis.'"

Politico reports, and here's her new piece: "The Online Rebuttal Is the New Black." If I were writing headlines over at Vanity Fair, I'd avoid using the word "rebuttal" for a piece about a butt. And if I were Monica Lewinsky, a woman notorious for calling attention to her butt by displaying her thong underpants to the President of the United States, I would not choose to make my point about the use of social media to fight back against public humiliation by focusing on a 14-year-old girl making a show of her butt.

Last line of Monica's piece:
In Carleigh’s case, her body-positive photo went viral. An online rebuttal . . . in all meanings. Sounds good to me.
Oh! So it wasn't just the headline writer stumbling onto a pun. Monica punned on purpose. I don't think a 14-year-old girl is well served by having Monica Lewinsky talking about her ass.

27 comments:

Guildofcannonballs said...

I like on-film rebuttals better than online.

Think of Marcia Gay Harden and Gabe Byrne in Miller's Crossing.

"Intimidating helpless women is what I do." - Tom Reagan

"Well then find one and intimidate her." - Verna Bernbaum

The comments to Lewinski's article are interesting. Is it fair to ask "who did Monica blow to get this job?"

Heyooyeh said...

Lots of slut-shaming happening on Althouse's part. She insists that Vanity Fair and society only view Monica through the prism of 1998 and before and that there is no way the former intern can contribute anything of value based on her experience and development since then.

That's an out-of-touch and incredibly boring way to look at things.

The Crack Emcee said...

Vanity Fair, obviously, is hedging their bets in case Hill will run - the problem:

Monica's always over-exposed,...

Unknown said...

For Crack, "the new black" conflated with fat butts, racist. reparations. slavery.

KLDAVIS said...

"So it wasn't just the headline writer stumbling onto a pun."

No stumbling here, the headline writer lifted 'Online Rebuttal' from the title of an NPR segment referenced in the piece.

"I was listening to NPR’s All Things Considered. One segment of the show addressed a trend: 'The Rise of the Online Rebuttal.'"

Drago said...

No one speaks more effectively to the true inner spirit of east coast white jewish female elites than crack.

rhhardin said...

Butt isn't a big association.

I'd avoid cigars and dresses.

Fandor said...

Monica is just blowin' in the wind.

dwick said...

I've read that women who doggedly continue to attack another woman long after any reasonable cause often do so out of jealousy tinged with the regret of opportunities missed.
Some psychologists term it the 'Maureen Dowd complex'...

Lucien said...

But, a 14 year-old girl can be well served by Monica Lewinsky writing approvingly of her assertion of her own agency.

Ms. Lewinsky plainly wishes (and who can blame her) that online rebuttals had been available in 1998, thinking back on all the incisive points she would have made, and still smarts from the felt loss of her own agency.

It's an interesting enough topic to make "let's talk about thongs, instead" seem like the lazy way out.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Heyooyeh said...
Lots of slut-shaming happening on Althouse's part.


Is there? The writer Lewinsky is known only because of her disreputible acts. Those acts happened to involve sexual reations (with a married man), so her making sexual puns is obviously germane, but the "shaming" if any isn't necessarily due to sex. Is having an affair with a married person (without the consent of their marriage partner), lying about that affair, taking favors from the cronies of your lover, etc.--is all of that OK now, or can people still view that behavior with displeasure and disapproval? Is it "shaming" to point that out? If so is shame not exactly the corrrect response?!

Crunchy Frog said...

What exactly is a starstruck girl in her early twenties supposed to do when her boss is the leader of the free world, and wants to get it on?

Besides, we know what happened to the women who said no. Disreputable acts indeed.

Heyooyeh said...

Althouse basically means to say that Lewinsky and the 14-yr-old are sluts who have nothing to offer, because, essentially, they're shameful sluts. Slut-shaming.

The Godfather said...

Monica clearly belongs in the mainstream media. She did the same thing for the man who was then President that the mainstream media does every day for the man who is now the President.

glenn said...

More Fart Noises.

Saint Croix said...

I am Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot. I am not programmed for chocolate cake. Do not give me chocolate cake. I will throw up. This is not bulimia. I am not programmed for chocolate cake.

Saint Croix said...

I am Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot. I am not programmed for reproductive sex. Do not attempt to have reproductive sex with me. You will break my vagina. Please do not break my vagina. Thank you.

Saint Croix said...

I am Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot. I like the Elephant Man. He is nice. I will leave him naked in a field in Scotland. That is what I do when I like you.

Saint Croix said...

I am Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot. Come with me into the black pool. I will walk on top of the black pool. You will sink into the black pool. That will not be fun for you. But you will do it anyway. This is my programming.

Saint Croix said...

I am Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot. If Fake Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot claims to be Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot, she is lying. Do not believe Fake Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot. I am the only Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot.

Saint Croix said...

I am Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot. I have trouble with lipstick. But I have a nice ass. It is my synthetic ass that leads men to their doom. Do not attempt to have sex with my ass. That will not work.

Saint Croix said...

I am Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot. I am not a method actor. That is why I do not have a Scottish accent. But when you are Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot, you do not need a Scottish accent. Could Meryl Streep seduce men into a black pool? She could not.

Saint Croix said...

I am Scarlett Johansson Alien Robot. The dingo ate my baby. That is a robot joke. The dingo did not eat my baby. I do not have a baby. I do not have a uterus.

Jupiter said...

"I don't think a 14-year-old girl is well served by having Monica Lewinsky talking about her ass."

Normally, I would agree. But in this case, it looks as if a bunch of other people were talking about her ass already, and she decided that rather than allow herself to be bullied by a mob of yahoos, she would make a public point of being comfortable in her own skin.

Anonymous said...

You want an inappropriate butt shot?
Try this one (she's been dubbed Sanitary Napkin Girl). It is so wrong, in so many ways, it cannot be quantified.

Peter

Anonymous said...

Saint Croix, I applaud you. (and I really liked that film, too)

Saint Croix said...

thanks, Betamax! I could not resist.