Month: February 2021

If you and your gal pals from the 90s did any of the following, this episode is for you:

1) Made prank calls or obscure AIM screen names to see if your crush liked you.

2) Played MASH and read Seventeen magazine at sleepovers.

3) Did makeovers on each other or, heaven forbid, plucked each other’s eyebrows.

4) Swooned over JTT while watching Home Improvement or TGIF.

5) Traded friendship necklaces and bracelets you got from Claire’s.

6) Idolized iconic 90s friendships like Cher and Dion, Romy and Michele, Monica/Rachel/Pheobe, and more.

7) Supported each other as you all navigated the true weirdness of stepping into the Y2K digital information age while still trying to hang onto your imagination, creativity, and whatever childhood innocence you had and wanted to prolong.

This week, two of my best girls – Alisa, my bestie who grew up with me in the 90s, and Laura, my bestie here with me in LA – recount all the fun things we did with our girlfriends in the 90s.

To girlfriends everywhere, this episode is for you.

Happy Galentine’s Day!

In 1995, a bright, beautiful, motivated 22-year-old woman named Monica Lewinsky fell in love with the wrong man and suffered a heartbreak you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. Who hasn’t?

Although for Monica, the wrong man was the President of the United States, and her heartbreak played out for the world to witness, sending her into a deep depressive spiral that she almost didn’t survive.

Fast forward to 2021, after years of therapy and deep healing work, she is now a major force in the activism against cyberbullying. Through her work and others’, the tides of public humiliation have shifted since 2014, and she has since pivoted to become a major advocate of the #MeToo movement focusing on uncovering abuses of power in so-called consensual relationships. And she’s a badass at it.

Join me (by myself) as I explore her story in the 90s and the legacy of her status as “patient zero” of cyberbullying. And after you listen, raise a glass of your sparkliest bubbly to this sparkly human, whose presence brings solidarity and comfort to so many femmes/women today.

CW: This episode contains depictions of shame, depression, suicidal thoughts, PTSD, sexual assault, power abuse,  and sexual harassment.

Sources

“The president has a girlfriend”: Linda Tripp’s betrayal of Monica Lewinsky and the taped phone calls,” ABCNews, January 2019: https://abcnews.go.com/US/president-girlfriend-linda-tripps-betrayal-monica-lewinsky-taped/story?id=59865969

Monica Lewinsky: Emerging from the House of Gaslight in the age of MeToo,” Vanity Fair, March 2018: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/monica-lewinsky-in-the-age-of-metoo

“Clinton Whistleblower Linda Tripp dies at 70, Monica Lewinsky Reacts to her Illness,” Refinery 29, April 2020 https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/04/9669757/monica-lewinsky-linda-tripp-death-cancer-twitter

“Amid a new impeach

ment drama, onica Lewinsky works to rewrite her story, Boston Globe, February 2020 https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/02/04/metro/amid-new-impeachment-drama-monica-lewinsky-works-rewrite-her-story/

“The Price of Shame,” Monica Lewinsky – Ted Talk, March 2015

https://www.ted.com/talks/monica_lewinsky_the_price_of_shame?language=en