This brings me to Mimi Alford and John F. Kennedy. Early this year, Mimi confessed the sexual 18-month affair she had as a White House intern with President Kennedy. Public commentaries questioned whether anyone cared or found her story relevant. She reveals, “When you keep a secret and when you keep silent about something, you do it because you think it’s keeping you safe, but in fact, it’s deadly.”

Mimi was swept into a whirlwind of exciting romance with a handsome president who had abundant charisma, and magnetism. He was glamorized, adored, even idolized by American society. Joanna Schroeder, writer for the Good Men Project, states

“In a time when female sexuality was both demonized and put on a pedestal, when virginity was one of the most valuable aspects of a woman, when women had very little sexual agency, perhaps Alford had to romanticize the loss of her virginity to survive the pain of what may have been a less-than-consensual interaction.”

Mimi carried her secret for 50 years. When asked if she would do it again, Mimi replies, “I still wouldn’t say no.” Remembering her affair and loss of virginity as exciting romance is her way of surviving and overcoming the shame of her first sexual experience. A shame imbued by society. In fact, when she told her husband, he told her never to speak of it again. However, romanticizing her first time is a way of accepting her haunting past.