Using Shame as Opportunity

        Monica Lewinsky, notoriously known for her involvement in the Bill Clinton Scandal that occurred during his presidential term is transforming the negative energy targeted towards her into an opportunity to speak out against the misuse of shame in America. Lewinsky claims to be 'patient zero' in the cyber age of public shame. Lewinsky recently gave a TED Talk in Vancouver going in detail about this subject and her personal account with it. “Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop,”said Lewinsky, “And it’s time for an intervention on the Internet and in our culture. . . . We need to return to a long-held value of compassion — compassion and empathy.”
        At some point, there is a line between having your misshapes in the eye of the public, and having your whole life ruined because of one mistake made. Even to this day, rappers and comedians refer to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal for jokes along with sexual similes and metaphors. To further point out changes in the use of shame in society, moral guilt and shame was a method to change the beliefs of racists during the civil rights movements in the form of protests.

“Noncooperation and boycotts are not ends themselves; they are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent.”-Martin Luther King Jr.

        Jennifer Jacquet, author of "Is Shame Necessary?" has taken the subject to a deeper level, as she explains how shame is used in certain industries in regards to certain fishing gear, pesticides and unfair trade. At one point in time, shame was used as a way to scapegoat someone and use them for the example of 'if you behave this way, this is the shame you'll go through'. Now it is a method used by industries to gain profit and use the guilty conscience of individuals. “Shame is not only a feeling,”says the New York University
environmental studies professor, "It’s also a tool — a delicate and sometimes dangerous one — that we can put to use to help solve serious problems.”