Shame On You, Shame On Me

Public shaming is nothing new, really. In the old days you would have been locked in the town square stocks for minor transgressions like swearing or drunkenness, or been made to don a dunce cap for acting out at school. (Those were still around in some parts of the US as recently as the 1950s, believe it or not.) But the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the ’90s kickstarted a new form of online vigilantism that has only gathered strength with the advent of social media. In the two decades that have passed since her affair went viral, a culture of shaming and public humiliation has woven itself into the fabric of society, creating what Monica describes as ‘a mob of virtual stone throwers’.

- Catherine French

'I don’t even know how to begin to describe what it was. But to see my face on TV, to read my name in the newspaper? People have no idea what this has done,’ says Monica Lewinsky

in a 1999 interview, choking back tears. ‘That behind the name “Monica Lewinsky” there is a person, there is a family and there has been so much pain that has been caused by all of this. It was so destructive. It was so destructive.’

If you were too young to have watched the 1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal unfolding, you would almost certainly have seen the memes or wryly shaken your head at comedy skits at her expense. Her black beret became iconic, the symbol of a fallen woman torn to pieces by media that was fuelled by the boost of technology and the ability to spread news at a rate not yet witnessed before. ‘At the age of 22, I fell in love with my boss,’ says Monica, in her 2015 TedTalk, The Price of Shame. ‘And at the age of 24, I learnt the devastating consequences.’ She describes herself as ‘patient zero, the first to lose a personal reputation on a global scale, almost instantaneously’.

SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE

In December 2013, 30-year-old senior director of corporate communications at InterActiveCorp Justine Sacco was on a flight to South Africa. Before her plane departed, she tweeted, ‘Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get Aids. Just kidding. I’m white!’

In July 2015, Walter Palmer, a US trophy hunter whose preferred weapon was a bow and arrow, wounded and later killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe.