As the years passed Monica seems to have wavered between capitalizing on her notoriety, with projects like a handbag line and a 2002 HBO documentary, or going far enough away to escape it. (She went to England, where, she mentions proudly, she earned a master’s degree in social psychology.) Her ambivalence persists in her come-hither Vanity Fair photo, a seductive sofa pose rather than the kind of straightforward, unretouched portrait of a real 40-year-old woman that might have better suited her “new me” message.
Monica is right about the lack of empathy shown by the feminist lobby, who joined the hyena pack casting judgment on her youthful conduct. Other women can often be the worst at cutting any slack towards the love interest in a sex scandal. But she herself is a little short of empathy towards the woman whose husband she was romping with. She uses the loftily patronizing word “troubling” to describe Hillary’s confiding to her late best friend Diana Blair that she blamed herself somewhat for Bill’s straying and calling Monica “a narcissistic loony toon.”
“Yes, I get it,” writes Monica. “Hillary Clinton wanted it on record that she was lashing out at her husband’s mistress.” But frankly, what did Monica expect for flashing that thong at another woman’s husband?
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