Monica Lewinsky says she still has hopes for social media despite cyberbullying

Monica Lewinsky has been a vocal campaigner against cyberbullying — and despite experiencing it firsthand, she still believes social media can have a positive impact on women’s lives.

Lewinsky, 44, is one of several women who discussed their experiences with cyberbullying in a series of new interviews with Mashable, explaining why they won’t log off despite the abuse.

With 295,000 followers on Twitter, she often receives derogatory comments, many referencing the Bill Clinton affair that led to his impeachment trial in 1998.

 

Not logging off: Monica Lewinsky (pictured in November 2017) said in a new interview she believes women can still use social media to their advantage despite cyberbullying

However, Lewinsky remains convinced she and other women can use social media to their advantage. 

‘As a woman, what is vital is how social media can be used to amplify our voices or reclaim our narratives,’ she told Mashable. 

‘There is something powerful about direct communication — not being mediated through another’s lens.’

In addition to helping women reclaim their stories, Lewinsky believes the online world can also make it easier for them to find allies.

‘What gives me hope is that it is so much easier to find your tribe and like-minded people on social media whether people are in your same city or halfway around the world. Knowing we’re not alone is crucial,’ she added.

This is not the first time Lewinsky has spoken out publicly against cyber-bullying.

Back in October 2017, Lewinsky, who also gave a Ted Talk titled The Price of Shame in 2015, teamed up with the ad agency BBDO New York to create a PSA for the cause.

The clip aimed to get people to think long and hard about the fact that cruel, racist, and bigoted comments are so commonplace on the internet when they’re not tolerated in real life. 

In the two-minute video, which debuted on YouTube, online bullying is taken offline to highlight just how big of a problem it is.

Powerful tool: 'As a woman, what is vital is how social media can be used to amplify our voices or reclaim our narratives,' Lewinsky (pictured in March this year) said

Powerful tool: ‘As a woman, what is vital is how social media can be used to amplify our voices or reclaim our narratives,’ Lewinsky (pictured in March this year) said

Called ‘In Real Life’, the PSA features several scenes in which people are filmed slinging hurtful and bigoted insults at others around New York City.

In one, a stranger approaches a gay couple sitting and eating at a restaurant to berate them.

‘I think gay people are sick, and you guys should just kill yourselves. Just end your miserable existence,’ he says. ‘Homosexuality is a disease. You’re saving humanity by killing yourselves.’

In another scene at the same restaurant, one woman approaches another at a table to insult her weight.

‘Fat b****es like you should get over themselves and go on a diet,’ she tells her. ‘I’m traumatized. Get a gym membership. I f***ing hate fat people.’

In a park, a woman yells at another woman who appears to possibly be of Middle Eastern descent and is simply texting on her phone.

‘All of you Muslims need to go back to the hellholes you’re from,’ she says.

A final scene shows a group of three teenage girls on a sidewalk. Two have teamed up to belittle and insult the third girl.

‘She’s so stupid, you’re so stupid,’ they say. ‘You know you’re stupid? You’re the weirdest f***ing kid in school. Everyone hates you. You should hate yourself, too.’

In each of the instances, the injured party is minding his or her own business and seems to be hurt and surprised by the attack. Two women even tear up.

And luckily, in each case, a bystander steps into put an end to it: A large, muscular man grabs the person attacking the gay couple and tells him to get lost, a young woman steps in to defend the bullied teen and tell her attackers they should leave, and passerby in the park offers a hug to the Middle Eastern woman.

As it turns out, all of the bullies and their victims were actors — but their words were very really, lifted directly from social media. (The people who stepped in were not actors).

The video asks: ‘If this behavior is unacceptable in real life, why is it so normal online?’

Remarks: With 295,000 followers on Twitter, she often receives derogatory comments, many referencing the Bill Clinton affair. She is pictured with him in a photo used as evidence in 1998

Remarks: With 295,000 followers on Twitter, she often receives derogatory comments, many referencing the Bill Clinton affair. She is pictured with him in a photo used as evidence in 1998

Lewinsky has plenty of first-hand experience with the disparity between what people will say to your face and what they will say behind the veil of internet anonymity.

‘I think that there are are probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of horrible things, which have been said about me online and in print,’ she told People. ‘But I can count on one, maybe two hands, how many times people have been rude to my face. 

‘When you are with someone, when you see someone face to face, you are reminded of their humanity.’

She herself has had to repeatedly remind people she is, in fact, a person — and jokes made at her expense hurt.

Not long before the 2017 anti-bullying PSA was released, a D.C. lawyer named Aaron Worthing joked on Twitter that ‘@MonicaLewinsky was the first person to #TakeTheKnee’. What’s more, he had the audacity to tag her in it, seeming to hope she’d see it.

But Lewinsky’s stance on bullying seems to be working, as several other Twitter users came ot her defense. She later thanked them.

‘Shazamming all of you who retweeted + liked this tweet w/compassion + empathy. AND nothing funny about #TakeTheKnee. #PeacefulProtests,’ she wrote.

Lewinsky re-emerged into the spotlight in 2014, over a decade and a half after becoming a punchline and the center of President Clinton’s sex scandal.

Not lying low anymore: Back in 2017, Lewinsky called out a man who made a joke at her expense and thanked people who stuck up for her

Not lying low anymore: Back in 2017, Lewinsky called out a man who made a joke at her expense and thanked people who stuck up for her

She started her personal campaign against bullying with a Vanity Fair piece that year, candidly discussing the fact that she was ‘possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet’. 

In 2015, her TED Talk went viral, eventually earning over 11 million views.

‘I was Patient Zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously,’ she said in her speech, adding that society is experiencing a ‘compassion deficit’ and ’empathy crisis’ online.

After the PSA hit YouTube, several celebrities including Katie Couric and J.K. Rowling shared it and offered support, while Lewinsky spoke out even more.

‘The internet is an incredible tool that has allowed for unprecedented connection and the instant sharing of ideas,’ she told AdWeek. ‘But in occupying a disembodied, digital space, we also risk losing our humanity and forgetting that other people are beyond the screen.

‘This campaign is a wakeup call to remind people that our instincts for empathy and caring are still strong. We just need to consciously extend that thinking online.’



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