Monica Lewinsky Says She Was ''Patient Zero'' for Cyberbullying: ''Public Humiliation [Is] an Industry''

41-year-old gives impressive speech in France

By Brett Malec Jun 25, 2015 8:10 PMTags
Monica LewinskyFrancois G. Durand/Getty Images

Monica Lewinsky was on the receiving end of a standing ovation after she gave an impressive speech on cyberbullying and the media industry of public shaming at the Cannes Lions Festival this week.

"If you were a brand, what brand would you be? When you're Monica Lewinsky, that's a loaded f--king question," the 41-year-old began her impressive talk. "Like me, at 22, a few of you may also have taken wrong turns and fallen in love with the wrong person, maybe even your boss. Unlike me, though, your boss probably wasn't the President of the United States of America."

Lewinsky continued, "Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of my mistake, and I regret that mistake deeply. In 1998 after having been swept up into an improbable romance, I was then swept up into a political, legal and media maelstrom, that we had never seen before."

Lewinsky went on to relate her experience with the cyberbullying many people experience today.

"This scandal was brought to you by the digital revolution," she said. "What that meant for me personally was that overnight I went from being a completely private figure, to a publicly humiliated one worldwide. I was patient zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously...I was branded as a tart, slut, whore, bimbo, floozy and of course ‘that woman', I was seen by many but truly known by few. It was hard to remember ‘that woman' had a soul and was once unbroken."

Lewinsky concluded, "A marketplace has emerged where shame is a commodity and public humiliation an industry...People make brands. If people are compassionate, brands will be compassionate in return."