RECLAIMING WITH MONICA LEWINSKY PODCAST - THE ACTIVIST INTERVIEWS

 APPLE PODCASTS MONICA LEWINSKY  (Also available on YouTube...)

RECLAIMING with MONICA LEWINSKY PODCAST

Excerpt:  If you're interested in unexpected conversations that go uncharted places, are remotely self-aware and like to laugh, then please join me as I continue to find my public voice on Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky. (That's me.) I will have honest, wide-ranging interviews with all kinds of people - recognizable names, regular folks, experts and friends - about what it means to reclaim what's been lost or taken in the broadest sense.  Every week, I'll draw from my own unique experiences (like say, surviving a global scandal at 24 years old), and delve into the personal and often messy ways people find their way back to themselves.  And because I love a good tangent, we'll probably also touch on other stuff, too.

AMERICAN CRIME STORY - IMPEACHEMENT : MONICA LEWINSKY IS A REAL PERSON AND NOT A PUNCHLINE

FX NETWORK AMERICAN CRIME STORY : IMPEACHMENT

Monica Lewinsky worked on this miniseries as a producer. 

DECIDER COM : REVIEW OF IMPEACHMENT FX SERIES by Kayla Cobb

Excerpt: Instead of a raunchy temptress, Impeachment presents Lewinsky as a lovestruck young woman, desperate to please the married man she adores. And as this relatively quaint story is pulled deeper and deeper into the politics of D.C., it devolves into pure horror. You’ll leave Impeachment feeling many things: anger at Linda Tripp, disgust toward Bill Clinton, revulsion about the cutthroat media landscape and our current team mentality of politics. But you’ll also leave it understanding that Monica Lewinsky was a real person rather than a punchline.

Missy here!  Have you been betrayed by a friend you confided in?  How, if at all, did this effect your ability to trust?  Or have you been the person who betrayed a friend? Why? Leave me a comment!

C 2025  Mistress Manifesto - BlogSpot  All Rights claimed including Internet and International Rights

MONICA LEWINSKY SYMBOL OF STRENGTH by the band DOUBLE VICTOR

https://doublevictor.bandcamp.com/track/monica-lewinsky-symbol-of-strength

In researching Monica, I learned that there's a punk rock song written and recorded about her - or perhaps I should say for her. I'm linking to the YouTube video of the song (with a warning that there's a swear word used) so you can check that out.

YOUTUBE : MONICA LEWINSKY by DOUBLE VICTOR

 

THE 2025 ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW OF MONICA LEWINSKY

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/monica-lewinsky-reclaiming-podcast-interview-1235264549/   article by Kate Storey  from February 14, 2025

MONICA LEWINSKY: ‘I MANAGED TO SURVIVE SOMEHOW, SO IT’S POSSIBLE’
The White House intern turned advocate opens up about her new podcast, survival, and charting a new course...

Excerpt: In her forties, though, she waded slowly, hesitantly back into public waters. In 2014, she wrote a viral essay for Vanity Fair titled "Shame and Survival." The next year, she did a blockbuster TED Talk called "The Price of Shame." In 2021, she served as a producer on the Ryan Murphy series American Crime Story: Impeachment - willing to relive the worst year of her life in exchange for a chance to have a say in how it was told.

Finally, people were ready to really hear her side. She continued writing for Vanity Fair, appeared in anti - bullying PSAs, produced a documentary called "156 Minutes of Shame", about people who’ve been publicly humiliated, and starred in a voter-registration ad campaign for the fashion brand Reformation. She was becoming a symbol of resilience.

Today, Lewinsky is using her voice in a different way. She’s launching a podcast called Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, a Wondery production in which she’ll sit down with guests to talk about something that shaped who they are — and how they’ve come to think of it on their own terms. Some early guests are Molly Ringwald, who talks about her own experiences with fame at a young age, as well as Kara Swisher, novelist Anne LaMott, and Lewinsky’s good friend Alan Cumming. She gives each guest a crystal at the end of the show.

Missy here!  It's a great article and it got me thinking.  I ask you HAVE YOU BEEN BULLIED OR HUMILIATED?  Did you get over it easily or is the experience still sticking to you? 

C 2025  Mistress Manifesto - BlogSpot  All Rights claimed including Internet and International Rights

MONICA LEWINSKY : A SURVIVOR WHO IS MOVING FORWARD and STILL EVOLVING

This month is dedicated to  MONICA LEWINSKY - A Survivor Who Is Moving Forward and Still Evolving.

In March 2012 I dedicated a month to Monica with my introductory post title GET OFF THE BACK OF MONICA LEWINSKY - Why Not Blame President Bill Clinton? I elected Monica to MISTRESS MANIFESTO here because it just was never fair that she took the brunt of the revelation that she had an affair with the President William Jefferson Clinton and she has suffered criticism and blame for years since. She was never a Mistress, and she isn't the first woman to have an affair with a married man, but is one of the few who became part of history - 20th Century history - because of it.

Some of the issues for all of us that come up with the scandal that hurt her, beginning when she was just twenty-four years old, include women's sexuality, power-over (an authority figure with responsibilities taking advantage of an underling), and the betrayal of a "friend" (Linda Tripp) pretending to have our best interest in mind - and pretending to be a person who one can confide in - and have that information used against us.

It is now 2025, Monica is much older (51ish) and wiser than when she was an intelligent college girl who was hired to be a White House Intern, and who had the possibility of a dazzling future career ahead of her. She has had to find her way through one obstacle after another. Monica is still evolving.  

MONICA SAMILLE LEWINSKY

1974- Present

Note: The photo of Monica is from her government ID photo by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, taken in May 1997, originally from US DOD. This image is a work of the U.S. military or Department of Defense employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the pubic domain in the United States.

C 2025 Mistress Manifesto - BlogSpot All Rights claimed including Internet and International Rights

MONICA LEWINSKY MODELS SOPHISTICATED FASHIONS and ADVOCATES FOR VOTING

Monica Lewinsky figures in here at Mistress Manifesto though she has never been a Mistress or a Courtesan, as one of the women who I consider Dynamic. Her youthful affair with the then President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, made her infamous, though she was a much younger intern and he was, well, he was the President in the Oval Office and the boss.  I have long advocated for Monica, who has suffered for it. So I was happy to hear that she has a modeling gig.

DAILY MAIL : Monica Lewinsky models for Reformation

Excerpt:  Delivering her powerful message, she said that she was motivated to not let 'voter frustration' and 'apathy' get in the way of going to the polls to cast their ballot.

Lewinsky was dressed up in a series of gorgeous ensembles - from Reformation's two-piece linen number from the brands Moya collection, to a flirty long knitted black dress from their Mikol line, and a chic black Veda Ashland leather trench.

'We've seen in polls that voter frustration is up and apathy is up,' Lewinsky told ELLE's fashion features director, Véronique Hyland.

'We all have to be reminding each other that we can't let that get in the way of needing to vote, that that's how we use our voice. That's where our power is.'

FANNY MURRAY EXCEEDS HER RIVALS IN FAME

By the late 1740's Fanny Murray was the most popular Courtesan in London, far surpassing her contemporary and historic rivals. Thousands of prints of her image had been made and circulated.

"Fascination with every aspect of her life, from her lovers to her wealth and beauty, was no longer the lone preserve of male admirers, and extended well beyond the world of gallantry.  As already noted, reputable women, who might not have wished to receive Murray in their homes, were none the less keen to follow her as a fashion icon and to copy her style. ..."

"Although Murray was thinking about withdrawing from prostitution at this time, and eight years had elapsed since she had first been acclaimed the toast of the town, she was still at the top of her profession, the very personification of style and an unparalleled arbiter of taste. Even after Murray had settled into marital respectability, magazines like the Centinel still presented her as a leading trendsetter and influential woman of fashion." (page 70 NaN0)

********************************

For the rest of her life, despite a marriage that endured, Fanny and her husband would never escape her past completely, kind of like what has happened to Monica Lewinsky, never a prostitute or a mistress or a courtesan, who's brief affair with President William Clinton as a young woman, has made her infamous, though she has lived many years past it.

I suppose the criticism and mockery that Fanny endured also says much about popular culture in Georgian England at the time.  For so many of the elite did buy sex. But as it is today, those selling it rather than those buying it are the ones who pay the highest price.  Missy

C 2023 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved including International and Internet RIghts
 

MONICA LEWINSKY and AMERICAN CRIME STORY : SHE SAYS SHE'S GOING to NEED MORE THERAPY

DAILY MAIL MONICA LEWINSKY and AMERICAN CRIME STORY 

Monica has earned a place here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSOT and was an Honorary Mistress of the Month in March 2012 with the first post entitled Get Off The Back Of MONICA LEWINSKY Why Not Blame President Bill Clinton?

I love the American Crime Story television series, and it was inevitable that they would get around to Monica. Although I doubt that she had any desire to be thrust into the public discussion when she had her rendezvous with the President, she has done her best to get over the scandal and move ahead. 

If you use the search feature embedded in this Google Blogger, you can bring up various posts through time on Monica!

Missy

"CELEBRITY MISTRESSES" WHO REALLY WERE NOT and the MEN WHO DIDN'T KEEP THEM : MISSY SPEAKS

In searching for people to feature on this blog, I sometimes do internet searches to see what's up. I've found so many articles that use the term CELEBRITY MISTRESSES. While many of these articles are correct about the fact that there has been adultery, they are rarely correct about the terms and conditions of the relationship. Affairs, even extremely brief events, are turned into relationships. Relationships, some of which end in someone's divorce and remarriage are not the same as the relationship between a person who has negotiated being in a long relationship with another person and is closer to being a second spouse. One article I found was right on about various celebrity men and their "baby mamas" but there is no evidence that any of these women who (sorry to say) stupidly had babies with men who use their celebrity to whore around were their Mistresses. (I'd love to know about the child support issues.)

However, we are in the process here of DEFINING Mistress. If you page through my archives you'll get a feeling for the people who I've featured thus far and why. Sometimes I elect someone an Honorary Mistress. I don't think Monica Lewinsky ever was but I've featured her and also said, in so many words, Get Off Her Back! I suspect Anna Bey once was and decided she wanted a different life. Isadora Duncan was, with Paris Singer who was her arts patron as well who helped her survive in Paris and move towards her dream of a dancing school. Although a woman can be financially independent and a Mistress, the rich man who can afford to "Keep" or "Help" a woman is more likely to have a Mistress. Do I believe Sarah Symonds, who was a Mistress to a famous married chef?  Yes. I do. Bill Gates? I doubt it. Women throwing themselves at his feet?  Probably.

In several articles, Marilyn Monroe is identified as a Mistress because she supposedly had affairs with President Kennedy  and his brother Robert. This tale has been repeated and taken on more and more "fact" as time goes on, yet the overly married Marilyn who also was, reportedly, quite the sexual adventurer for her time, and may even been expected to sleep with various Hollywood power players to have a career, had to know that having sex and having a relationship could be two different things. I pity her and the women who, like her, felt or knew they had to have sex with men in order to have a career. However, Marilyn was a Mistress early in her life with an agent named Johnny Hyde. 

Tiger Woods is a man who is linked with many women who are called Mistresses because of their affairs with him while he was married. I have no reason to think any of them were. I tend to discount any reportage that calls women who have had affairs with celebrities Mistresses. So NO Rachel Uchitel was not a Mistress.

And hell no Amy Fisher was not a Mistress to Joey Buttafuoco.

There are a lot of celebrities, and that includes politicians, who didn't seem to mind that someone is married or that they are married, when they meet someone else who is willing, they have affairs. Affairs sometimes turn into a remarriage or the Mistress relationship, but my thinking on this is that these people are too high profile to have private lives and that some of them use their drama to fuel their fame. 

I don't think in this day and age it's possible to have a Classic Mistress if you're a celebrity but if you have a whole lot of money you can make it happen, if the Mistress is capable of being discreet, which probably means she is not aiming for fame herself. Even if a person compartmentalizes their life, a reporter is on the story.

Missy

C 2021 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.

You may be interested in :

Monica Lewinsky featured March 2012

Marilyn Monroe featured May 2012

Isadora Duncan featured February 2016

Anna Bey featured May 2021 

COMING UP : THIS WHITE HOUSE INTERN WAS MORE INVOLVED THAN MONICA LEWINSKY EVER WAS

This White House Intern was provoked to tell her story when a respected historian outed her and still waited years.

JUDITH CAMPBELL EXNER VERSUS MONICA LEWINSKY : MUST WE COMPARE THEM? PATT MORRISON DID

LA TIMES : SAGA OF THE POLITICAL PARTY GIRLS from 1998

Well written - creatively written - but do I agree with Patt Morrison, an esteemed journalist and television personality circa 1998?  In this article Patt says Monica Lewinsky seems so much less innocent than Judith Campbell Exner was at the same age. Yet, when I talk to older men they tell me that women in the 1950's were more mature than women of the same age in the 1960's.  She also credits Judith with being far more discreet and not telling about her affair with J.F.K. to just anybody.

THE FRENCH REACT TO THE CLINTON/LEWINSKY FLING - WHO CARES?

OVERALL the FRENCH ATTITUDE about the Monica Lewinsky and President William Jefferson Clinton affair was "Who cares?"

EXCERPT from the text under this AP (Associated Press) video:

But in France, people are showing a distinct lack of concern about the Clinton scandal - and some are even wondering why a leader might lose his office over a fling. Popular feeling seems to hover between bemusement and skepticism, with the dominant feeling being that politicians should be entitled to a private life. And the French certainly do not think that concerns over a president's private life should lead to drops in world stock markets. Far away from the hyperinterest in Washington over the latest developments in the Lewinsky scandal, French people are wondering what all the fuss is about. France acknowledged its own former president Francois Mitterrand's mistress with a shrug. And the French cannot understand how Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky can destabilize his presidency and affect world economies. ...

              

Missy here! I can say that I WISH Americans had the same attitude because if we did MONICA LEWINSKY would not have had (or have) such a horrible time. It was so dishonorable for President William Jefferson Clinton to allow her to take the blame. In March 2012 I entitled that month GET OFF THE BACK OF MONICA LEWINSKY - Why Not Blame President Bill Clinton?< which you can find in the archives here.

COMING UP : A MISTRESS OF 30 YEARS UNTIL HIS DEATH WITH A PRESTIGIOUS CAREER OF HER OWN

In keeping within last month's theme of France and the French, this Mistress of the Month for January 2020 here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT, a woman of accomplishment, became known to the world after he died.  Then much was revealed.

             

Here's an article on the FRENCH ATTITUDE TOWARDS POLITICIAN's AFFAIRS 

MY FRENCH LIFE : SEXUAL AFFAIRS - FRANCE POLITICIANS by Ray Johnstone

EXCERPT:  Even more difficult for Anglo-Saxons to understand, the French are often even supportive of sexual dalliances.  In 2013, the respected Pew Research Centre found that 40% of the French believe it's not a moral issue - and 12% even believe extramarital affairs are quite acceptable.

When Monica Lewinsky revealed what happened with Bill Clinton in the Oval Office, America's media frothed at their collective mouths....

MONICA LEWINSKY IS STILL HEALING

VANITY FAIR - MONICA LEWINSKY on HEALING and MEETING UP WITH KEN STARR

I dedicated a month to Monica, who was not a Courtesan, not a Mistress in the best, classic scense, but did have an affair with President Bill Clinton when he was in the White House. He denied it because his definition of sex was intercourse.  Now with the Me Too Movement outing powerful abusers, Monica Lewinsky has entered a new phase of her healing.  And she writes a thought-provoking article about her life as it is right now.  Back when I featured Monica here at Mistress Manifesto Blogspot I said GET OFF HER BACK! Sure she was smart.  Sure she was young.  She knew what she was doing.  But being outed by a person posing to be a friend and putting the Presidency into question isn't something she took into consideration.

MARCH 2012 is where to find Monica Lewinsky in my archives.

EXCERPT: ... Given my PTSD and my understanding of trauma, it’s very likely that my thinking would not necessarily be changing at this time had it not been for the #MeToo movement—not only because of the new lens it has provided but also because of how it has offered new avenues toward the safety that comes from solidarity. Just four years ago, in an essay for this magazine (Vanity Fair), I wrote the following: “Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position.” I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent. Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE KEPT? A COURTESAN? A MISTRESS? TO HAVE A HIGH COURTESAN ASPECT TO YOUR PERSONALITY? MISSY SPEAKS!

When you write a blog called Mistress Manifesto (on Google BlogSpot ) for several years as I've been doing, you wrangle with the question of what it means to be Kept, or what if any difference there is between a Courtesan and a Mistress!   When I profile Dally the Tall I have no doubt that she was a Courtesan because of the times that she lived in as well as the high art of her presentation and personality and the limitations of her ambitions. 

In other cases I'm not so sure.

Of the three words, I think the one the media overuses and uses incorrectly is Mistress.  A woman in any old affair, even if it was just one night, can be called a Mistress in the media if the man she's involved with is married.  (For instance, I don't think the once playful Monica Lewinsky was ever President Bill Clinton's mistress and I would never apply that word to Marilyn Monroe, as confused as she was, though I think both women had a high courtesan aspect to their personalities.)  Now that there are so many people who consider themselves committed living apart or who never marry legally, the question of ADULTERY as a key to Mistresshood doesn't count so much.  Some relationships are so OPEN that Mistressing seems to be downright OLD FASHIONED, what with all that sneaking around!

Mistress is also used to imply that a person is a dominatrix, or at least powerful in the classroom as a teacher or as the owner of independent estate.  I'm sure some people have been looking for a dominatrix when they happened upon my blog!  I note that in this case the MISTRESS IS POWERFUL and IN CHARGE.  Since so many women are not powerful or in charge this mistress can become quite the fantasy for women, especially because she does this and is still feminine though not weak.

So then we look at what it means to be KEPT and that word seems to imply CONCUBINAGE!  When we say someone is KEPT there are always financial implications, like that the person does not work for pay at anything and are totally dependent on someone else for their needs. It is the financial evidence that we are looking for and it's the financial evidence that makes the news and pushes previously low key mistresses into the public eye.

This one is tricky too because not so long ago most MARRIED WOMEN WERE KEPT WOMEN.  They stayed in the home and were "home-makers" or their work was as mothers and wives but they did not go out and earn any pay.  As married women they were respected for this, even honored.  These days most women work or if they are living off savings, an inheritance, or unexpected windfall, they write a novel or do volunteer work.  These days most women do not want to ask a husband for money to buy everything they want or need. They don't want to go behind his back or be tricky to buy a new dress.  They are almost embarrassed to let a man pay for everything on a date.  They are trying to prove to a man that they do not need him or that they are not less than him, at least not less than him financially.  "I don't need you!" she seems to be saying.

With the financial dependence most often for women that means she is COMMITTED TO HIM and their RELATIONSHIP even if he is not so much to her.  Such a woman may decide to not date others or have sex with others even when he has not given her such a commitment.  (It is my suspicion that this was the case with poor L'Wren Scott.)

The ability to admit to need and the willingness to allow someone else to help them financially without embarrassment or apology is where today's Kept Woman or Mistress or Courtesan prevails.  This is also an old fashioned aspect of relationship with so much opportunity for independence today. It can even be an act of great self esteem and self acceptance to admit to someone that yes you can accept their generosity and no you are not an opportunist or user.  You will really appreciate it.  And do well with it.

Another way to find meaning in these words is in the personality of a person.

What does it mean to have a High Courtesan Aspect to your personality? 

Why are people who have this so appealing to other people? 

Well, people with this aspect to their personality know how to have fun.  They can be silly or sweet.  They can be childlike and have wonder about the world even as they get older and older. They know how to seize the moment or the day.  They see the beauty in things and they make themselves and their surroundings beautiful.  They are apt to be a little too forgiving and to make excuses for people and to keep things light.  This light heartedness is contagious. They are apt to see the glass half full rather than half empty.  They can't stay mad for too long.  They give perceptive and sincere compliments. 

There is a certain happiness to being able to make do, to invent.  Even when they can't afford a decorator their pillows are fluffed and there are guest soaps in the bathroom.

When things are going badly they get up and do the next day anyway, because they have faith that change is inevitable but it will all turn out well enough. 

Often they are the ones who make things happen for others, the job interviews, the dinner parties, the group to the opera, the event at the museum, or the little gift they picked up for you at a garage sale that is just perfect!

Missy

C Missy Rapport/ Mistress Manifestto.blogspot.com  2014  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

MONICA LEWINSKY "IT'S TIME TO BURN THE BERET AND BURY THE BLUE DRESS"

VANITY FAIR - MONICA LEWINSKY SPEAKS

EXCERPT: “It’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress.” She also says: “I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened.”

After 10 years of virtual silence (“So silent, in fact,” she writes, “that the buzz in some circles has been that the Clintons must have paid me off; why else would I have refrained from speaking out? I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth”). Lewinsky, 40, says it is time to stop “tiptoeing around my past—and other people’s futures. I am determined to have a different ending to my story. I’ve decided, finally, to stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past. (What this will cost me, I will soon find out.)”


****

MIssy here! 

In March of 2012 I elected Monica as subject of the month, if not Mistress of the Month, saying everyone needed TO GET OFF HER BACK.  (You may want to bring up all those posts by either going to the archive or using the search feature of this Google Blogger.) 

After all, President William Jefferson Clinton, a known womanizer with a very tolerant wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was and is still respected. He had the nerve to call a woman he was having sex play with at the White House "that woman" and denied he had sex because he went Old School and decided that sex is only intercourse.

Hillary played Black Madonna and refused to speak to him for some weeks as punishment, while Monica, who was much young, infatuated, sexy, and impressed with the power of the Presidency, has lived a life of suffering for her mistake. 

Like some other women, such as Marilyn Monroe, who are called Mistresses in the Press, Monica was never actually a Mistress to the President or any other man that I know of, but I feel sure that back in the day if she couldn't marry Clinton she would have been happy to be his mistress.  In fact at this point I wish Monica had become some wonderful man's mistress because that would be better for her than what she has experienced which is to be a social outcaste.

In the current Vanity Fair article she confesses to being not suicidal but near suicidal at times over the last years since the scandal that will always have her name attached.  She also is open minded about having a life with another woman if not another man since men have also been a problem.  Intelligent and educated, having gone to London to achieve a Master's degree, she has yet to find a good employer.

One of the lessons of Monica Lewinsky is about trusting another woman/person with your private life secrets, someone who you don't know that well and shouldn't be e-mailing your private information with like someone in the same company or same business, in this case politics. 

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF : MY SHORT LIST OF MISTRESSES EXPANDING ALL THE TIME!

When I started this blog I had a short list of mistresses and most of them were in the Historical Mistress category but as time goes by more and more mistresses emerge in the news, often because they out themselves by writing books or are written about.  After all, most mistresses are in secret relationships, as secret as those who keep the secret.  After all, we aren't ready for polygamy to be legal.  We're still struggling with gays being allowed to marry legally.

One of the discussion issues about Mistresses is defining who is or is not a Mistress.  MOST OF THE WOMEN WHO ARE CALLED MISTRESSES IN THE PRESS are NOT!  Of all of the modern women who have suffered due to this label is Monica Lewinsky, who was simply in an affair with President William Jefferson Clinton when he was in office, though she may have felt love for him that he didn't have for her.  Strangely, it is his denial of her that has set her apart, and possibly made her unmarriagable.  Every adulterer is not a mistress or mister, and not every mistress is an adulterer!

In History many mistresses of Kings and other Aristocrats were married (some would say Married OFF) or acknowledged financially.  It was considered good for the family.  (An example or two is Mary and Ann Bolyn.)  Some men, including husbands (think Camilla Parker Bowles' husband Charlie) were tolerant or delighted that their women were of interest to men with power and those men with power sometimes sent the husband away on some official duty but often rewarded them. 

These days many mistresses are self supporting.
These days some women are keeping men.
These days some women mistress for a time because it suits their time of life, and move on into marriage or singlehood on purpose.

These days when women have more power over their own lives than ever (though not as much as the feminists would idealize) some are choosing to be with men who cannot or will not marry them.

WHY?

I think it comes down to LOVE.

There isn't the benefits of marriage to a mistress that wives can have, and many a wife is staying in a loveless marriage for one reason or another, often financial.  So whose to throw the first stone at another woman who has financial as well as other interests in a relationship?

Earlier in the year I said that I might go a couple months in 2012 without naming a Mistress of the Month and it never happened because there were too many mistresses in the news to ignore.  This month I'll be focusing on the holidays and I hope you will be too!

Missy

C 2012 All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
Missy Rapport / Mistress Manifesto

2012 : MISSY LOOKS BACK ON THIS YEARS POPULAR POSTS AND THINKS AHEAD TO 2013

I'm not going to elect a MISTRESS OF THE MONTH this month.

Not that there aren't more mistresses to write about!

Instead I decided to look at the Google Blogger stats and write about some of the most popular mistresses and posts over the last year! 

This may surprise you, but Jesse Jackson Sr.'s, Karin Stanford (sometimes the spelling of her given name is Karen and sometimes you see her surname as Stafford but I think Stanford is right) seems to be the most popular! 

As for this blog, MISTRESS MANIFESTO, no other mistress seems to have gotten as many hits!  That makes Karen the most popular mistress that I've included in my pantheon.

Next, when it comes to number of hits is a brief mention of BOB HOPE'S GIRLFRIENDS.  (I'll have to do more on that subject in 2013!)

In 2013 I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO HEAR FROM MORE OF YOU and reach deeper into my mail bag!  I'd love to give a few more people advice - or at least my point of view - but I know that so many of you are in the closet about your alternative lifestyle.  I want to respect that, which is why almost all the mistresses I've written about are public, historical, or otherwise documented persons.  I wouldn't out someone just because they wrote to me!

WE ARE STILL TRYING TO DEFINE "MISTRESS!"

We all seem to agree that a mistress is a kept woman who is involved with a married man and who receives substantial financial support from him, but we all know that a person, male or female, whatever their sexuality, can be a mistress (or mantress) without being involved with a married person.  Some mistresses of very wealthy men will never have to work for a living in their lives, others are kept for a short period of time or are self supporting.

Yes, there are just so many different ways to be a mistress. 

Yet there are some people that the media has or does label "mistress" who just never were.  One of those people is Monica Lewinsky, who had an affair with President Bill Clinton while he was in office that appears to have been a one sided love.  (You can read more about Monica by using the Google search feature installed on this blog!  We can't wait to read the book she's working on!)  A mere affair does not make a mistress!

Perhaps more than anything, being a mistress is a mentality, a way of looking at love and life, a choice for some and fate for others!

Missy

C 2012 All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights

TIME MAGAZINES TOP TEN MISTRESS LIST

TIME MAGAZINE'S LIST : TOP TEN MISTRESSES OF ALL TIME !?  link here

Do we agree with their list? 

Lucy Mercer  -  YES!
Camilla Parker- Bowles  YES YES YES!
Monica Lewinsky - NO! 
Amy Fisher - NO!  (I will never feature Amy as a Mistress of the Month!)
Anne Boleyn - YES!
MARILYN MONROE - NO!
Rielle Hunter - YES!
JAIME GRUBBS - MAYBE...

Using the Google Blogger Search feature, you can pull up past posts on some of these women who have been Mistresses of the month!  Missy

MONICA LEWINSKY BOOK SOLD FOR TWELVE MILLION

MONICA LEWINSKY GETS 12 MILLION - YAHOO NEWS

A few months back I said that MONICA LEWINSKY was not a mistress to President William "Bill" Jefferson Clinton.   No, their relationship was an affair.  Special to her.  Not so special to Clinton who distanced himself calling her "that woman."  Never mind the age difference and the difference in power.

Today the breaking news is that she will be paid $12 Million for her memoir.  I'm happy for Monica.  She paid an unfair price for her affair, one of those being that if she were not a notorious woman she would likely have found love in all the right places by now.  If she is condemned to singlehood or loneliness (and not everyone who is unpartnered is lonely or even looking for a relationship) then at least allow her to be well off for the rest of her life!