In the latest episode of Slate's podcast, How To!, host Charles Duhigg interviews former U.S. Representative Katie Hill, who was shamed into resigning after her estranged husband sent unauthorized nude photos of her to a right-wing blog, and Jon Ronson, author of the book, So You've Been Publicly Shamed.
Hill has a new memoir, She Will Rise.
Quotes from the episode:
Katie Hill, former Congresswomen, on her initial reaction when the scandal took place:
"My initial reaction was, you know, of course I can survive this, you know, especially if you look at who our president is and just so many scandals that especially male politicians have survived. But it was just this sense that it would never end. I started to feel more and more like a pariah, like people couldn't trust me. And just this overwhelming weight of knowing that so many people had seen these photos and had this horrible view of who I am that was not consistent with the way that I saw myself and the work that I was trying to do, that it just felt so insurmountable."
Jon Ronson, the author of So You've Been Publicly Shamed, on sex scandals for men compared to women:
"There's a biased, misogynistic salaciousness when it comes to consensual sex scandals that men do survive better."
Katie Hill about public shaming as the new normal:
"So I don't know that there's a right answer. But I do know that no one, no matter what you've done, deserves this level of public shaming that has become fairly normal."
Katie Hill on whether she would do anything differently in regard to her decision to resign:
"I guess I wish that I had given it more time before I decided to step down, like maybe I had, you know, stepped away for a bit, said that I'm going to take some time with this."
Jon Ronson on public shaming and how to survive a scandal by not allowing yourself to be shamed:
"Our shame worthiness lies in the space between who we are and how we present ourselves to the world."
Katie Hill on still getting comments:
"This happens still sometimes there are certain people who, like, reviewed my book and said, well, you know, she doesn't apologize enough during it. And I'm like, how much more can you apologize? Like, what more can you ask for than the fact that I stepped down?"
Jon Ronson on reclaiming who you are after being shamed, and the strength Katie showed by responding how she did to her scandal:
"It does take a lot to get over [a scandal], which is, you know, a reason why it's so impressive that, you know, Katie's responding in the way that she is, because, of course, you know, for most people, you were an outline. You [Katie] were like an outline in a crime scene. And now what you're doing is filling in the outline nuance and humanity and so on."
