Monica Lewinsky: Still Slut-Shamed After All These Years

First there was the infamous blue dress. Now, 15 years later, there’s the black negligee, being auctioned off this week along with several other items that once belonged to Monica Lewinsky.

The hodgepodge collection—also including a dated blue velour DKNY hoodie and a yellow Ann Taylor linen blazer, along with notes, letters, Presidential-seal chocolates, official White House matches and auto-pen-signed photos of President Clinton—comes from the former wife of Andy Bleiler.

Bleiler, for those who can no longer recall the scandal details, was the high school drama teacher Lewinsky had an affair with before meeting Clinton. He originally submitted the items now being auctioned to special prosecutor Kenneth Starr during his investigation into the affair in 1998.

Bleiler reportedly got the collection back after the investigation closed, and, rather bizarrely, his ex-wife wound up with the stash. Now she wants to get something out of them, presumably, as the items have found their way into the hands of Los Angeles memorabilia collector Nate Sanders, who is selling them online.

As of Tuesday afternoon, with just two days to go, there were only five bids on the collection. The price had slowly moved up from the $2,500 minimum to $6,490.

Lewinsky has obviously managed to move on since becoming entangled in one of the most well-known sex scandals of all time. She’s had stints designing handbags and shilling for Jenny Craig, became a New York City party girl, hosted a reality show, spoke out about her Clinton experience and eventually moved to London to escape being recognized on every corner.

She’s presumably over it now, though. Can’t the world be over it, too? It seems we almost are. Though it also seems that no one can resist pawing through the former belongings of a woman scorned. (Where are Bill's stained briefs, by the way?)

The Twitterverse was divided between those who tittered over the auction news (“Hillary Clinton a potential buyer?”) and those sighed heavily (“This made me sad for so many reasons”).

You can count us squarely in the camp that sighs.