Why Stormy Daniels Isn’t Getting the Monica Lewinsky Treatment – By Joanna Weiss (Politico) / May 10, 2024
So far, none of the familiar sexist insults have seemed to stick.
Stormy Daniels makes no apologies. Not on social media, where she’s quick to clap back at ugly memes and derogatory jabs. And not in a courtroom, where, on a witness stand in Donald Trump’s hush money trial this week, she proudly described her pornography career, defended herself from charges of money-grubbing and deflected criticism of a strip club tour called “Make America Horny Again.”
Sex scandals have come a long way since the Bill Clinton days
That’s a major takeaway from this week’s courtroom spectacle, when Daniels calmly testified about hotel room dalliances and sexual positions and the clumsy come-ons from a future U.S. president — and the media took copious notes. In some ways, the excitement around the trial was a throwback to the political and legal scandals of the 1990s, when Clinton’s alleged sexual harassment and illicit affairs led to lawsuits, investigations and impeachment. Then, as now, there was breathless interest from the press, aw-shucks reporting of salacious details, palpable glee from late-night comedians.
But there’s also a crucial difference. The women at the center of the 1990s scandals, Paula Jones, who sued Clinton for sexual harassment in the mid-1990s, and Monica Lewinsky, the intern at the center of Clinton’s impeachment, were mocked and belittled, frequently dismissed, dragged unwittingly into the arena and left to suffer there alone. At one memorable point in the saga, Jones broke down crying at a press conference; the spotlight was too harsh, the pressure was too much.
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