Monica Lewinsky discusses ‘power imbalances’… on Call Her Daddy

Monica Lewinsky, the woman at the center of the scandal that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, opened up about her journey and how America has changed in its understanding of power dynamics and owning one’s sexuality on the Call Her Daddy podcast Tuesday.

Lewinsky walked through how she processed the power imbalance involved with the scandal over time. When it was happening, she didn’t think about it much. “I thought it was something it wasn’t. My feelings were real,” she told host Alex Cooper.

It wasn’t until later that she was fully able to digest what she was going through at the time. “I’m very clear that this was not sexual assault. And therefore, there is a level of consensuality that was there. And at the same time, because of the power dynamics and the power differential, I never should have fucking been there.”

Lewinsky explained how she feels the onus primarily falls on the person with the most power in the relationship — whether that be age, job or financial resources — to make responsible decisions.

She elaborated on what has changed in the American consciousness since her time as a White House intern. “I think it was really in the wake of #MeToo 2.0 that we really started looking at power imbalances under the umbrella of abuse of power,” Lewinsky said.

“I think we have made some strides, just even in the fact that we now have language, we now have nomenclature for these kinds of things that allow for more nuanced conversations,” she said.

Cooper started to relate her own experiences to those of Lewinsky. She discussed her attempts at reclaiming her sexuality by making it her own to avoid being slut-shamed, before asking Lewinsky how she was able to handle it.

“It might be generational, but I think the comfort level of really feeling like you can own your own sexuality fully can be one layer that many of us go through,” Lewinsky responded.

However, there is a key difference between the experiences of the two women. One is attempting to reclaim her sexuality after being thrust into the light of national discourse, while the other started her podcast career sharing the intimate details of her sexuality but is now unapologetically attempting to reclaim it as she wants people to take her and that same podcast seriously. (Call Her Daddy remains a favorite of Cockburn’s nieces, to his eternal shame.)

Lewinsky, like Cooper, has started her own podcast to document this journey.