The Personal is Political: Thinking Through the Clinton/Lewinsky/Starr Affair

Extract

The Clinton/Lewinsky/Starr affair unearthed a fault line in contemporary feminist theory, an unresolved tension between two governing ideals: “the personal is political” and the right to privacy. Since the early 1970s, both of these slogans have figured prominently in feminist scholarship and feminist politics. But as the Clinton sex scandal dragged on, many began to question the merits of politicizing personal matters such as intimate relationships. In the scandal's wake, feminists may find it tempting to retire the rallying cry “the personal is political,” and to distance themselves from what now appears to be a quaint leftover of the bold but naïve feminism of the 1970s. In the end, Starr's McCarthyesqueIn one of the more memorable quips to emerge from the reams of commentary on the scandal, Alan Dershowitz coined the term “sexual McCarthyism” to describe Starr's tactics. probe seems to have enhanced the public commitment to privacy. No longer to be taken for granted, the right to privacy is widely affirmed as an essential shield against official coercion.