The Jeffrey Epstein Case Implicates Us All
As long as we allow powerful men to claim access to women’s bodies as their just reward, we may not notice the monsters among us
What kind of monster is Jeffrey Epstein?
The question has become pressing for commentators across the political spectrum. The evidence points to a vast network of sexual exploitation in which some of the most powerful men in the world traded girls’ bodies like party favors. By the time all this is over, many well-known men will be implicated — and quite a lot of people are anxious to shield themselves or their perceived allies from that reckoning. But in trying to pin Epstein’s sins on some partisan “enemy,” we miss the point. The villain here isn’t any one group. It’s patriarchy, where male success is measured in access to women’s bodies. We all live in that system; none of us have clean hands when it comes to rape culture.
The list of Epstein’s connections is long and nauseating. Woody Allen and Bill Cosby both reportedly visited him at home. President Bill Clinton was a friend who flew on Epstein’s private plane on a few different occasions; so was President Donald Trump, who told New York magazine in 2002 that Epstein was a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on…
