Empire and Sex: Monica Lewinsky

In class we have been talking a lot about how sex influences basically everything in history, but this doesn’t just apply to the colonial times. In the 1990s there was a HUGE sex scandal centered around the President of the United States that caused his impeached, this means that the second impeachment case ever of a United. States President happened because of sex.

A 22 year old intern, Monica Lewinsky, had sexual relations with President Bill Clinton 9 times from 1995 to 1997. During Clinton’s deposition for a case of sexual harassment (the Jones Case, a case against Clinton for sexual harassment…he was a pretty bad guy) Clinton claimed that he did not have sexual relations with Lewinsky. Later when it came to light that Clinton and Lewinsky had in fact had sexual relations, it was realized that Clinton lied under oath. This caused his impeachment trial to be conducted.

Monica Lewinsky

The Monica Lewinsky case created a lot of drama and was a huge deal in the scheme of things. Many people in the Democratic party believed that the case created a lack of excitement among the party and was a part of the reason that Gore lost the 2000 election. At the time of the impeachment trial there were more Republicans than Democrats in the Senate, so there was fear amongst the Democrats that he would be found guilty on the accusations of perjury and/or obstruction of justice. Ten Republicans acquitted him of perjury and five on the obstruction of justice, which was enough to acquit him of all charges and allow him to remain in office.

Clinton argued that he was not lying in court because they only ever participated in oral sex and he only ever received it, never gave it, which was not specified in the question of sexual relations. If you ask me, he just didn’t want to look bad for cheating on his wife, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and possibly end up divorced by the end of his presidency. Hillary never left him after the scandal.

If you think about it, one of the biggest scandals there has been in the past twenty five years, was completely based on sex. Why is it such a big deal that the President of the United States had oral sex with a woman he was not married to? Does this make him less fit to lead the nation? Does this change his policies? Or just his image?

If you ask me, the truth is that in politics your image is EVERYTHING, so if he was caught cheating on his wife, he would be seen as less wholesome and would not be seen in the same way by the world. And the crime he was impeached for was not cheating on his wife, which is wrong, but not illegal. The crime he was impeached for was lying under oath, by saying that he had not had sexual relations with Lewinsky, he created an opportunity for those who did not like the way in which he ran the nation to stop him. They took this opportunity and failed, but who knows, maybe this had some small form of influence on the recent election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

It is so strange how interested we are in our leaders’ sex lives and how it changes our views of them as a president.

Research Blog

4/9

I have been thinking a lot about what I am going to research for the big research paper this quarter. I am very interested in music and want to write and produce a song. I am thinking that it would be really fun to write a song in the style of those of the 1970s regarding empire or something happening at this time in America. I am going to sing, play the ukulele, and attempt to play the digeridoo, an African instrument, and the Native American flute as best I can. By incorporating these instruments into the song I will create a window to analyze the place of these marginalized people during this time period. It will be somewhat difficult to get this all produced and edited into a song, but I will do my best to make it sound pleasant and mean something in terms of empire. I absolutely love music and the stories you can tell with it. Music is so important to the cultures of different societies. Some music is religious. Some music is used to bring people together for a cause or in times of trouble. And some music is written to make the listeners feel what the writer felt when they wrote it. Music is one of the most beautiful and powerful things that this world has to offer. I think that music is a big part of what makes us human, and since this is a research project for Humanities Core I think that it is a very important and relevant point of research. I am looking forward to seeing where my research will take me and how my argument will develop throughout the quarter.

4/23

I have decided that I will do my research project on the Ground Zero 9/11 Memorial in New York. I chose this as my artifact because I visited it a few years back and it brought tears to my eyes to read the names of all the lives lost that day, especially those of women’s name with “and unborn child” written below.

9/11 was one of the most traumatic events in US history, thousands of people died and have died since as consequence. This memorial, it’s vastness, and all that has gone into it and its design shows just how important this event is to America’s history.

I am looking into Langer’s work about memorialization and am interested in implementing his work into my paper.

I am planning on connecting the memorial to empire in multiple ways. I will connect how memorialization influences empire and why we remember certain events more than others. I will also be looking at the impact of the actual events of 9/11 and how this memorial and the freedom tower are important to our conceptualization of the events and the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

As time goes on and there are eventually very few or no people around who remember 9/11, they will be able to look back on footage and see the huge memorial and they will be able to better understand how important this event is in our history. It has led to the longest war in US history that is still not over. The memorial and it’s immense size conveys an accurate representation of the impact that 9/11 has had on our country.

I am excited about my topic because I have a personal connection to it and I believe it will be easy to stay interested throughout the duration of the quarter.

5/21

At this point in my research I am really starting to see the true significance of memorialization and how it is done. Memorials of the past are large and white and don’t really mean anything, they are biased and try to make you feel a certain way. The 9/11 memorial is similar to the Vietnam memorial in that it is an abstract memorial and allows people to really feel however they need to about the event, they are not guided into feeling one way or another.

The memorial is made up of 2 giant voids in the “footprints” of the twin towers symbolizing the great loss brought on by the events of 9/11. These are accompanied by many trees symbolizing rebirth and hope for the nation.

One thing that was not planned by the designer, but works out well is that the freedom tower that replaced the world trade center is located across the street, bringing an even greater sense of hope.

I am excited to see my research come together. Having just written a preliminary thesis I already know that my ideas will evolve throughout the rest of my research and drafting. This paper is a great culmination of the year, allowing us to study empire in whatever way we choose.  I’m not sure at this point where my paper will go or end up by the end of the process, but it will be interesting to find out.

9/11 is an extremely important moment in American History. We have been at war for more than a decade because of these events and will continue to lose American lives until who know when due to this controversial war.

This powerful catalyst brought American’s together to look inward and support one another in going through the loss of these lives and has changed the nation forever. It has created paranoia and grief. And this memorial is meant to bring those who have experienced this void created by 9/11 and show them that they are not alone and they are entitled to feel however they do about the events of that tragic day.