Bill Clinton Doesn’t Get To Talk About Sexism
Until now, Bill Clinton cheating on his wife with a White House intern in the Oval Office was irrelevant to Hillary’s campaign.
Bill’s choice to sound off on BernieBros — Sanders supporters Bernie himself disavows (and loudly did so on CNN) — right as the New Hampshire primary sets off… is rich. If you don’t remember, Bill Clinton used his position as the most powerful man in the country to fool around with a 22-year-old intern (and if you work back in time from there, it gets worse). This is an example of sexism — systematic and personal sexism.
The power dynamic that Bill exerted to cheat on his wife while in the White House while he was President of The United States is more than enough to call him a sexist. In that specific incident, he hurt two women: Monica Lewinsky and Hillary Clinton (at least she said so). But that was one thing — and Bill’s history with women is not a single, isolated ordeal. This man has an absolute mountain of allegations made against him — starting in college and following him through his entire political career. At bare minimum, he’s a womanizer — which, you know, isn’t a type to typically respect women.
The prominent incident that colors Bill Clinton’s presidential legacy in pop culture lexicon is absolutely laced in sexism. Not just in the dynamics that made the situation possible, but in the response to it.
Bill Clinton wants to talk to you about online abuse at the hands of BernieBros. A lot of people want to argue about this group of people, but the fact is that hyperconsumption is a legitimate issue and creates “stans” — or toxic fans. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both have them. Anyone disputing Bill Clinton on this is in the wrong — he’s just focusing on one of the two types of stans in this race. Both Bernie and Hillary stans are noticeably sexist (you know, against women) — and it’s right to talk about that. At the same time, the amnesia Bernie Sanders ascribes to Republicans must be contagious, as Bill seems to have forgotten about his own past.
Have you ever ventured into Monica Lewinsky’s twitter mentions? I’ll save you a little trouble. Within the last 5 minutes, there are multiple sexist tweets that have been sent her way. Do you think — somehow — that they aren’t much more directly related to Bill Clinton’s actions than Berniebros are with Sanders? Hopefully not. I could go into further detail about how much more responsibility Buffalo Bill bears for those tweets than Sanders does for Berniebros, but the fact that Sanders has engaged in no actual sexist or predatory activity himself is more than enough.
Is Mr. Clinton pretending to himself that somehow he isn’t directly responsible for two decades of societal, sexist abuse of Ms. Lewinsky and others and many, many more women indirectly? Because that’s just not the case.
Bill Clinton’s choices put Monica Lewinsky in everyone’s crosshairs. People love to say “it was her choice to sleep with him,” and yes — their encounter(s) were likely consensual. But do you think it’s the same choice for a 22-year old intern just starting her career as the one being made by a man in the position of her superior? Let alone her superior in the highest office in the country? No. It is not. Do you think she would have dealt with the same kind of public abuse she currently deals with to this very day if he hadn’t gotten all “hey girl, you ever sleep with a POTUS?” No. No she would not.
If you think Bernie Sanders’ public presence has caused more abuse towards women than Bill Clinton’s, maybe ask Monica Lewinsky.
Where was Bill Clinton to Stop The Sexism™ when the entire country absolutely ruined a woman’s life due to his own choices? Where was Bill Clinton to call out Jay Leno who continued to paint a target on her back by making jokes at her expense on his daily show with 5+ million viewers for years? Where was Bill Clinton to talk about the nationwide sexism against Monica Lewinsky? Where was he in regards to the defamation campaign he initiated that is still perpetuated? Where was he when that campaign was used as a template to harm other women (see: GamerGate)? He was quietly glad the “real” bad guy turned out to be “that woman.” He sat back somewhere as Monica Lewinsky took the fall for his actions. That is sexism. She was a “slut” and he’s a credible human being somehow.
Bill Clinton, of all people, has no frame of reference to call out some nobody internet randos for sexism.
The irony about this 1998 Vanity Fair article is that it’s criticizing feminists for ignoring and excusing Bill Clinton’s behavior (another really interesting thing: the author appears to be a libertarian, and the apparent difference between libertarians then and now is staggering, with this person at least appearing to care about predatory behavior). The article asserts that feminists have picked Bill Clinton as “their guy” and therefore willfully ignore an ample inventory of predatory sexual behavior that follows him from college through various offices he occupied all the way up to the Oval Office.
The astounding thing is this is once again what Bill (and Hillary, now significantly more complicit in his dishonesty — if not directing it) is relying on is outrage from (white) feminists to simultaneously keep the heat off him as well as advance a political goal. Bill Clinton does not get to say a bunch of internet randos attacking women are the problem. He is literally the root of the internet randos attacking women problem. He established the precedents, his team painted Lewinsky as the real problem at the direct expense of all but her life — and pretending they didn’t risk her getting killed by offloading his blame on her isn’t naive. It’s insidious.
Has Bill Clinton addressed this situation? Has he said “I was definitely wrong about how I handled the Monica Lewinsky scandal — as well as the previous scandals I have been involved in regarding my treatment of women?” No. Why would he? He got away with it and no one cares anymore.
In getting away with it to the point of never having to address it again, though, he forfeited his ability to credibly talk about sexism. Bill Clinton: as someone who has benefited from, encouraged, and engaged in sexism, every word you speak on the subject is of no value whatsoever.
