Monica Lewinsky Speaks Out About #MeToo & the Time's Up Movement in Personal Essay

In the age of #MeToo and Time’s Up, Monica Lewinsky is once again reflecting on her infamous scandal with former President Bill Clinton while working as a White House intern.

“As I find myself reflecting on what happened, I’ve also come to understand how my trauma has been, in a way, a microcosm of a larger, national one. Both clinically and observationally, something fundamental changed in our society in 1998, and it is changing again as we enter the second year of the Trump presidency in a post-Cosby-Ailes-O’Reilly-Weinstein-Spacey-Whoever-Is-Next world,” the 44-year-old social activist writes in a new essay for Vanity Fair‘s March 2018 issue, hitting newsstands on March 6.

“Given my PTSD and my understanding of trauma, it’s very likely that my thinking would not necessarily be changing at this time had it not been for the #MeToo movement—not only because of the new lens it has provided but also because of how it has offered new avenues toward the safety that comes from solidarity.”

“I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent. Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege.”

She also explains that one of the women leading the #MeToo movement reached out to her personally and wrote: “I’m so sorry you were so alone.”

“Somehow, coming from her—a recognition of sorts on a deep, soulful level—they landed in a way that cracked me open and brought me to tears.”

For more from Monica, head to VanityFair.com.