Impeachment: American Crime Story's Take on Monica Lewinsky Is a Clear-Eyed Portrait of '90s Sexism

In the opening scene of Impeachment: American Crime Story, FX's riveting (and only-lightly fictionalized) series on Bill Clinton's 1998 impeachment, a young Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein) goes to meet her colleague Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson) for coffee in the mall. It's a dramatic scene, because the coffee date is a setup: FBI agents are about to show up and detain Lewinsky for hours in a hotel, browbeating her to tell them all the details of her now-famous affair with the president. But before any of that happens, there's a stray, well-chosen detail: Monica buys Jane magazine, a nod to the youthful, cheeky, sex-positive feminism associated with that time. It's like the whalebone corset in a costume drama, that visual shot that reminds you that this story takes place, not in the present, but in a specific time now past. That image announces: We're in the 1990s now.

I'm of the same generation as Monica Lewinsky -- four years older -- so along with Jane magazine, I remember the Clinton impeachment, and Lewinsky's situation, vividly. In addition to telling its sordid, complicated, and highly political tale with moral balance and brio, Impeachment: American Crime Story (based on Jeffrey Toobin's 2021 book, A Vast Conspiracy) also succeeds as historical drama, capturing its time, from its earnest and playful elevation of women's sexual agency to the harsh sexism directed at any woman in the public eye. Like the best historical fiction, it also brings some of today's perspective to its storytelling. The series is informed by contemporary #metoo politics and a sober perspective on the gender politics at the turn of last century.

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In 1994, long before #metoo was a hashtag, a woman named Paula Jones accused then-President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment. During the unprecedented trial that followed, the world learned that Clinton had an affair with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky, a charming but insecure daughter of privilege from Beverly Hills. This series tells the story of the events leading up to that reveal: Jones' manipulation by far-right operators, the President's seduction of an intern, Lewinsky's confiding in Linda Tripp, and a complicated character's path in history as the worst/best girlfriend of all time.

In the 1990s, the culture paid some long-overdue attention to female desire. Lesbians became more visible, with celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Melissa Etheridge coming out. Women artists created pornography centered on the female orgasm. Esquire ran a cover article on a phenomenon it called "Do-Me Feminism." Even the intellectual world discovered that women had erotic feelings, publishing books like Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality (Pandora Press, 1992). That cultural moment is reflected in the series. At one point, Monica flashes her thong at the President in the White House. The pleasure she takes in that, relishing her moment of power over the most powerful man on earth, and expressing lust in an outrageously forbidden setting, is a series highlight. Her enjoyment when she later tells the conservative and easily scandalized Linda Tripp all about it is equally delightful.

At the same time, from our current #metoo-era perspective, Impeachment: American Crime Story shows that Clinton (Clive Owen) was a predator and an abusive boss. He implies that she should lie about it even if she gets a subpoena. We feel Monica's powerless position -- he's the president and she was an intern! At the time, Clinton's mistreatment of Lewinsky did not loom as large. That's partly because most Americans rightly understood that the affair was consensual and in no way warranted impeachment -- nor the amount of time and public resources spent in its prosecution. As well, the ongoing discussion of workplace sexual dynamics and power around #metoo has helped us (Lewinsky included, according to her recent public statements) to view the Clinton/Lewinsky relationship differently. The show prompts us to notice these shifts in the culture and take stock of what we've learned and at whose expense.

The series feels equally historically resonant in is portrait of the sexism of the 1990s. Despite the great advances in the decade away from seeing women as sexual beings rather than passive victims or objects of desire, sexist attitudes were pervasive and readily expressed that, I'm pleased to say, would be widely condemned today. For example, Hillary Clinton, a lawyer, was ceaselessly criticized for not being a more traditional First Lady. In "The Assassination of Monica Lewinsky," the seventh episode of Impeachment: American Crime Story, the period's relentless public bullying of women is so boldly rendered that many viewers will cringe. The news about Monica Lewinsky's affair with Bill Clinton has broken, and we see Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky both alone, watching comedians make fun of their physical appearance on TV, in the most vulgar possible ways. We even feel bad for Linda Tripp, if only briefly.

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Lewinsky was so disrespected in the public discourse at the time. Every commentator felt comfortable calling her ugly, fat, stupid, and slutty. (Rude and untrue!) Her past love affairs were exposed and she was portrayed as a crazy stalker (a sexist trope of the period, popularized in movies like Fatal Attraction and Single White Female). Paula Jones, a civil servant from Arkansas whose father was a preacher in the Church of Nazarene, was treated even less respectfully, for reasons of social class. White House strategist James Carville said of her accusations against the president, "If you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find." Penthouse published an ex-boyfriend's nude photos of her without her consent.

By contrast, the series brings a long-overdue sympathy and dignity to these women's stories. Paula Jones shows a genuine desire to stand up for herself and seek justice. Lewinsky is the heart and soul of the show, acted with subtlety and a full range of feelings by Beanie Feldstein. (Lewinsky -- for whom, like most women of my generation, I've always harbored "you go, girl!" feelings -- is credited as a producer on the show.)

The series does what a historical drama should: It brings us into the past and tells a story that couldn't have been fully understood at the time. At the same time, Impeachment: American Crime Story doesn't flatten its complicated saga to the perspective of the present. A fully 2021 story would have been one hundred percent #metoo: a powerful man's abuse of women. But because this is also a '90s story, thankfully, they didn't leave out the thong.

Impeachment: American Crime Story airs Tuesday nights at 10/9c on FX.