She Symbolizes Feminism Running Backward

“I am profoundly embarrassed at the picture of American young womanhood that has been beamed to the world via Monica Lewinsky’s TV interview and book. She is, on the basis of Barbara Walters’ conversation with her, vacuous, frivolous and depthless, but she is a very typical product of a certain kind of affluent upper-middle class family in America.

“There is a perpetual childishness that I have noticed that is very obvious in the girls who actually go to the best schools--the elite schools--in this country. They’re the very ones who, oddly enough, were the most susceptible to the certain kind of doctrinaire feminism.

“I think Monica Lewinsky is a kind of symbol of feminism running backward here.

“What repelled me watching Monica talk to the very dextrous Barbara Walters was how much Monica resembled a big baby; literally, all she needed was a diaper and a pacifier. Her entire relationship to life is a kind of paradigm of a family style in the United States that has infantilized the children.

“Monica is simply trying to get the attention of her father and plays this out in the White House.

“But I am outraged at the failure of the feminist establishment to take seriously the sexual harassment issues here. It’s not that relevant whether Monica Lewinsky engaged in a consensual relationship with Clinton or not. The point is: It is the other women in the White House workplace who were themselves victims of sexual harassment insofar as Monica Lewinsky was able to gain the attention of the boss by flashing her sexuality in a very gross and unprofessional way.

“Insofar as the president pays attention to the woman who uses her sexuality and therefore ignores the women who do not use their sexuality but just go about doing their jobs, what we have here is a very serious case of sexual harassment violation.”