Mimi Alford: JFK pressured 19-year-old mistress to perform oral sex, do drugs

LOL. Yeah, lots of people are going to be upset she published this, even though it's long been known she had an affair with him, and he bedded lots of women while in the White House.

She was going to divorce him before he became president. She was talked out of it, some say by a boatload of money, because of his presidential ambitions.

I suspect she knew while they were together. She definitely knew after his death because the whole nation was informed about it.

Women have always been considered one of the perks of power.

Proof? Please provide a link.

Your posts have been deleted because of your continued personal attacks. They are in violation of the CoH.

Feel free to post valid comments on the seed.

If you feel you have valid comments to make, please do so. However, mixing in personal attacks will cause them to be deleted.

You may repost any valid part of the comment as long as you do not repost the personal attacks.

In that era, any young woman who was unmarried and not a virgin was trash. When he took her virginity, he knew he was destroying her future and her reputation. That he further devaued her by making her service other men while he watched was a deliberate depravity meant to degrade her as far as possible.

It's hard to convey how much harm this inflicted upon her, both psychologially and in the eyes of society because of the attitudes toward women's sexuality that prevailed then.

Can we FINALLY stop idolizing JFK?

No. The assassination assured that. Besides, some people idolize men who abuse women with serial adultery. They think they're hot "studs."

Spankola, stop with the personal attacks.

Your comment was deleted as a personal attack. First, you make a personal attack on Conservative Conspirator and then on me when I asked you to stop. Please abide by the CoH.

In the closet? How romantic.

I watched an extended interview with her tonight. I liked her. She appeared to be honest and careful in what she said.

There is no doubt he deliberately sought her out as an intern (she never applied for the position and was totally surprised when it was offered to her), had his aides bring her to him, had his aides ply her with drinks and then took advantage of her. Mind you, that isn't how she described it, but that's what happened. She wasn't even sure what was happening while it was happening. She'd only kissed one boy one time before this happened.

And yet, she did not blame him or think he took advantage of her. That's the intellectual side of her. But the emotional side was revealing. She kept tearing up unexpectedly, showing there are unsettled emotions lurking behind the rationale. She didn't mention them, but Meridith did several times. When Meridith pointed them out, she denied they were important.

Meridith rightfully termed what she described as rape. She originally did not tell anyone right away (typical rape victim behavior) but when she told her friends a few months later, they too told her she'd been raped. Even then, she did not believe it was rape because she didn't actually say no out loud. (again, very typical victim behavior). After it was over, he simply left her to take care of herself and she was in shock, still not fully understanding what had happened.

Even after she left the White House internship and went back to colleg, he kept sending for her. She would do her homework on the plane that took her to be his bed partner, then be taken home again.

Very sad to hear and see, especially since she was being so generous toward him that she couldn't fully acknowledge her own feelings about it all.

Thanks, Tyler.

She was already outed and other people were writing her story. Why wouldn't she want it told from her perspective?

I'm always puzzled by people who think women need to remain silent so as to preserve the reputation of the man involved. Even in rape cases, women are supposed to just suffer in silence or be accused of "seeking publicity" or "seeking revenge." Of course, the question on the latter becomes why would a woman seek revenge if nothing happened?

It's beyond time for women's reality to be told by women rather than have it told by men. If you didn't criticize the male historians who discussed her and all his other women, then why criticize her?

Well, let's see.

She's in her sixties. How long would she have to live in order to publish this book after his heirs are dead?

Others were already publishing about her affair with him -- and the affairs of numerous others who were involved with him. Why should she have to remain silent while others tell her story? Why aren't the others being told to remain silent about the exact same affair?

Why is it women are always told they must be silent about what was done to them by men, especially if it puts the men in a bad light?

There's an old rule in journalism: if you don't want to see it on the front pages, don't do it. Shouldn't he have thought of his family before doing it? Wasn't he the one who violated his marriage vows? Wasn't he aware what he did in the White House was going to be written about?

He is the one who disrespected his own family. Let's talk about that.

This is what gets me. It's okay for others (usually male historians) to write about what a womanizing dog he was, which everyone already knows, including his family. It's not okay for the women involved to tell their own story.

It's proof positive the double standard is still alive, but more than that, the male historians treat it like men have always treated the womanizer: as someone to be admired because he treats women badly.

When the woman he treated badly speaks, it's from her own point of view and that point of view, no matter how graciously written, reveals the harm he did with his womanizing.

And because she's the one who said it, she gets labeled as the one doing the harm.

It's a dysfunctional look at how our society always blames the woman and lets the men off scot free.

If we look at it the right way around, how many victims like this one woman did he leave behind? I've read reports that his trysts that violatd his marriage vows were too numerous to count....which means his victims were too numerous to count.

Of course, the others are seeing how this woman is still being told to remain silent after half a century. That will in turn silence them too.

I'm hoping this book emboldens others to stop hiding these poisonous secrets that are still harming their lives. If they married and didn't tell their husbands, and if their husbands are still alive, they probably won't tell it now, even though they should be able to confide in their closest friends and relatives at the very least.

Secrets like this are poisonous. They continue to affect those around us, even when those around us do not know the secret. I wish all women could unburden themselves of poisonous secrets so they can at last be free of them.