Where on the Web Is Monica Lewinsky?
"Monica's Place," the Web
site of "Monica S. Lewinsky" (whose America Online profile declared, "Oh, What
a Tangled Web We Weave"), was spotted last week by several reporters. It linked
to sites like the White House and Greenpeace and included declarations such as
"This is My
College , its [ sic ] located in the most
incredible state in the world." AOL quickly identified the site as a hoax and
pulled it Jan. 22. "It seemed designed to deceive people," a representative for
the company said.
Indeed,
it already had. On Jan. 22, the Detroit
News reported, "Web page gives insight to intern." The paper quoted lines
from the page that did not shed a lot of light on Lewinsky's soul. "The
White
House , This is where I used to work. ... Of course when I
am not working I am usually watching my MTV ." Home page Lewinsky came
across as banal at best, empty-headed at worst. And a Jan. 23 Washington Post piece noted that "Monica's Place" "sure
looked like the real home page of Ms. Lewinsky" (though it didn't say why)
before acknowledging that it "could have been a hoax. Of course, the whole
thing could be a hoax."
The more we hear about Monica Lewinsky, the further removed
from reality she becomes. She's been transformed into a prototypical lovesick
teen (even if she's in her 20s), a vulnerable ingénue, a slightly clueless
betrayed friend and, most recently, a deranged hussy. Each "identity" is fully
developed on Web sites devoted to Lewinsky, which essentially take news
accounts and reflect upon them in a deeply silly manner.
Lovesick Teen: A "photo analysis" page (part of a site called Cary's Crap)
examines shots from the CNN tape of Lewinsky and Clinton's postelection hug,
noting the "ecstasy look on Monica's face" as she and the president
embrace--"Here Monica is obviously giving the President the 'Fuck Me' stare. If
she hasn't been, she wants to start. Notice the chick to the right with the
similar expression. She's Presidentialy [ sic ] Plump"--and her wistful
expression as he moves off through the crowd: "The girl is obviously out of her
mind with lust." A site pretending
to be Monica's home page (this one isn't out to deceive a soul) makes her a
total Southern California teen, whose favorite TV show is "BEVERLY HILLS
90210 (WHAT ELSE? - BRANDON IS SOOOOO CUTE!!) ."
Vulnerable Ingénue: "Your [ sic ]
young and were taken advantage of as far as I see it. I know you will do the
right thing. I know you fear for your safety but be brave and do the right
thing," says one concerned supporter in the letters section of the Monica Lewinsky Online
Fan Club.
Slightly Clueless Betrayed Friend: The fan club, whose support is
clearly less than 100-percent sincere--"Don't worry about the blown job with
Revlon ..."--includes a "Linda Tripp" section, which attacks Linda in no uncertain
terms but also portrays Monica as a dupe:
What kind of person tape
records a "friend" without them knowing it? What if this "friend" then uses
these tapes to put you in the international spotlight, facing federal criminal
charges, as well as ensuring your place in the history books as the penultimate
stupid bimbo?
Why, that is no friend at
all! Better pick better friends next time, Monica, especially in the big
city!
The site
then imagines what might have become of Lewinsky if Tripp hadn't tattled:
[Y]ou would probably be
traipsing through New York right now, enjoying many misadventures, like a
latter-day Ann Marie, Marlo Thomas' character from the 1966-1971 TV sitcom
That Girl . Why, there is even a resemblance!
(Head to
the page to see what they mean.)
Another Fan Page has a set
of good links about the affair and a message board, too, though on last visit,
it was no longer available. It will no doubt return soon.
Deranged Hussy: Messages posted to the "Fan Club" span
the range of opinion on Lewinsky. Here's one
typical posting from Jan. 29:
Monica is nothing but a 2
bit BIMBO. She's a liar, has lied her whole life and will lie to her grave.
Anyone who puts a valentine message in a news paper [ sic ] on her own
free will for a married man has got tom [ sic ] be a sicko stalking bimbo.
Thats [ sic ] Monica, her and her mother belong together, like 2 peas in a
pod.
Postings
on the scandal can be found in any number of newsgroups and sites. Zipper Gate is one
place to go for some even cruder entries. At the "I Love
Monica Lewinsky" site, a gentleman with a powerful crush pleads with
Lewinsky to do the Penthouse nude spread:
Do this
nude layout for Penthouse. See, it's all I have. IT'S ALL I HAVE!!!! I have
nothing but you Monica, please hear my cries. You know a little about
obsession, don't you?
And yet, we also have everything we're supposed
to need to construct our own vision of the girl. There's a résumé, courtesy of ABC, and photographs (some
from her high-school yearbook), which are being displayed all over television
and the Internet. None of us would want judgments formed about our character on
the basis of high-school-yearbook pictures, but it is worth noting that the
high-school Lewinsky seems fairly heavy and does not look happy. From her
résumé, we learn that she worked in a men's tie shop for four years. The
document is also marked with résumése, some of which now takes on an
unfortunate cast, given the scandal: "Excellent interpersonal ... skills." Her
e-mail and
former work addresses have been uploaded--not to encourage harassment, of
course, but "simply ... to point out how useful the Net has become in gathering
personal information." Her alma mater can be visited, as can her high school. She has yet to suffer the fate of having school
papers, personal letters, or other artifacts put on the Web by "friends" or
foes, but don't dismiss this possibility. Meanwhile, the site that has claimed
her name for its domain, www.monicalewinsky.com, says it's reserved "For Monica Lewinksy
[ sic ] to use to convey to the American People, the TRUE Story of the
White House Incident."
Then
there's the pornography--not of Lewinsky herself, though someone has posted a
fairly ubiquitous fake picture of a nude Lewinsky under the header "She had to go run her mouth." There are at least a dozen
"Lewinsky sites" that capitalize on users' interest in Lewinsky to entice them
toward more profitable pleasures. Search for "Lewinsky," and you may find a
site that reads "MONICA LEWINSKY NUDES FREE MONICA LEWINSKY NUDES FREE MONICA
LEWINKSKY ..." At first glance, this scans as "Free Monica Lewinsky," but it
probably isn't meant as a political statement. (Let Lewinsky out of the
Watergate!) A link that promises "Monica Lewinsky News Updated every 14 Minutes" delivers
SexKing.com. Monica Lewinsky Profile.com ends up taking you to the same
hard-core site, counting on the fact that you will click on the link marked
"naked photos." Oh, and if you inadvertently type ".com" after White House
instead of ".gov," you'll find a very different sort of establishment. It's not
just XXX sites that are up to this trick; see, for instance, "Monica Lewinsky,
we hereby invite you to use City Auction." "Need money to pay for your lawyer? We
guess that you will ..."
Finally we come to the sites about Lewinsky that are too
sick or crazed to categorize. Monica Lewinsky Ate My Balls boasts that it is the
"original" Monica Lewinsky Ate My Balls page, a claim that presumably will be
hotly contested. The Ate My Balls "joke," however, is not an original concept.
MLAMB is one of a series of sites (created by different people) based on the
premise that a famous person or character has eaten balls or likes to eat them.
Generally, there are photos and captions to this effect. Yahoo has helpfully
collected the series. A "photo
lab" does fun-house-mirror tricks to Lewinsky' face. Another site
manipulates her mouth. It also lets you stimulate the "president's
penis" with your mouse, producing predictable results.
Because you can count on a
proliferation of Lewinsky-related sites in the days to come, you may want to
bookmark this one, which compiles Lewinsky links ranging from news reports
to idiotic jokes.
We can't really expect
Lewinsky sites to define the "real" Monica Lewinsky. Nor would we want them to
reflect a grassroots campaign of unwavering support. There's something about
typing the name "Monica Lewinsky" into your search engine that forbids the
raising of serious expectations. But we might have hoped for a little
pop-cultural imagination, for Lewinsky sites to exhibit some personality--a
"drag personality," at least, that could make light of Lewinsky's situation
without slandering the girl herself. If nothing else, Lewinsky's a
twentysomething pitted against middle-age baby boomers--Linda Tripp, Lucianne
Goldberg, Kenneth Starr, Bill Clinton. We'd quixotically hoped that she could
turn to the Web in the middle of the night and find herself becoming a hip
cultural icon. At latest search, though, her generation has let her down.
