Sixteen years ago, the world watched in shock as a young woman announced her affair with the most powerful man in the free world. I’m talking, of course, about Monica Lewinsky and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

For those who may not be aware, Lewinsky is in the news lately due to her recent interview in Vanity Fair. There, she talks about the affair, her embarrassment, and her thoughts of suicide, all while vehemently denying that the Clinton family had paid her to keep quiet all these years.

Now, not to reveal this feminist’s age too specifically, but I was definitely prepubescent when the Lewinsky/Clinton scandal broke in the mainstream media. I was so young that I didn’t quite understand the jokes about dry cleaning or cigars. So when a blog titled “Monica Lewinsky: Feminists Failed Me” ran on the Washington Post’s website last week, I had to stop, research, and remember the situation before I could evaluate whether Lewinsky had a point.

Lewinsky contends that she was left on her own throughout the media feeding frenzy of the scandal. Her image was destroyed, and she has been unable to find stable employment because of the stigma forever attached to her name. So is Lewinsky correct? Did the feminists of the time fail her?

Well, they certainly didn’t rush to her defense. But had they done so, Lewinsky may have found their support to be a double-edged sword.

In any affair, there are going to be winners and losers. In this particular liaison, two women were put at odds with one another; to support one was to alienate the other. Was it fair to ask feminists to choose a side and pick the paramour Monica or the wife Hillary? Despite the similarities, this wasn’t a soap opera storyline but rather real people with real-world ramifications.

Let’s say, hypothetically, that feminists had thrown unwavering support to Lewinsky. Would they, at the same time, have been demeaning Hillary and destroying any future political career for her? Furthermore, what about the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea? The scandal had already put a large amount of stress on her family. How many people should have been destroyed in the name of feminism?

Obviously, the answer is none, but had raucous feminists rallied behind Lewinsky, this absolutely could have happened.

Another point I have made in the past is that not all feminists are man-haters. Jumping on a feminist bandwagon to trash the president would have made a bad situation even worse. Clinton wasn’t just any man, either. He had other big things on his mind, like running the country. The reality is that the most vocal feminists of the late 1990s who would have defended Lewinsky didn’t want to ostracize a president who was working to institute a legislative agenda that aligned with their political beliefs.

I’m definitely not trying to give the guy a pass. He should not have cheated on his wife. He should not have lied about it under oath. However, do I think a sex scandal (and really, we should be accurate in our use of language and call it what it was: an oral sex scandal) should have lead to an impeachment trial? Absolutely not.

But this article isn’t about my defense of Clinton. (Although, I will admit, in fourth grade, I desperately wanted to play the saxophone because I wanted to be like the president.) This article is asking if feminists failed Lewinsky.

I think there are two distinct instances where feminists could have spoken up a little bit more to support Lewinsky without collateral damage. The first: condemning the amount of slut-shaming that was directed at Lewinsky. This would not only have been the right thing to do for Lewinsky, but it is the right thing to do for women and young girls everywhere.

The second: attempting to mitigate the press coverage of her infamous makeover. By not calling foul when the media obsessed over Lewinsky’s sex life and new haircut, feminists allowed a college-educated young woman to be defined by superficial characteristics and private choices.

Both of these situations are areas where feminists could have stepped in, politely, without bashing either Clinton, and come to Lewinsky’s aid. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, and this is definitely the case here.

Lewinsky wasn’t the first woman to be painted a Jezebel in the press, and she certainly will not be the last. But what we, as feminists, can take away from all of this is that our actions (or lack thereof) can have repercussions for years to come. So the next time you hear about an affair in your own circles (or in Hollywood), think twice before rushing to judgement of “the other woman.”