"The men implicated in the Epstein files reinforces that I spend half my life explaining to men that their simplified, optimistic view of other men doesn’t line up with the experience of women and girls trying to dodge sexual harassment, assault and abuse attempts." - Leslie Morgan Steiner

By the way, the way some white disabled people are responding to this thread by acting as if the N word isn't itself a disability issue for Black people is a great case in point of how it is taken as a given that Black people must simply tolerate everyday racism as the price of being in public

People commentating on this like racism isn’t a physically disabling experience are being gross

“The two lawyers had reviewed the transcripts of the long-forgotten case and saw Wilkens’ prosecution as a stark example of a justice system that often fails to stop abusers but proves swift to punish those who fight back.”

There’s several reasons that business and public figures began immediately associating WFH with laziness and slacking, one is that these are things they already believe about disabled/chronically ill folk, and they hope you do, too.

See what I mean? White people are more likely than others to put energy into redeeming, "understanding" and rehabilitating white supremacists/nationalists, facists and the like rather than fighting them because they far more likely to have them as friends and family.

Every. God. Damned. Movie. had a rape joke or a full on rape scene in it And we were just expected to laugh and dissociate ourselves from the female characters experiencing it

It’s like how Zuck started Facebook really with women being unknowingly compared and commented on.

You know, it just makes sense. It's like Boy Scout leaders, the clergy, school resource officers, teachers, etc. I cannot begin to fathom the amount of voyeurism, the possibilities for grooming, or the potential for more victims that are tangentially connected. Hang them all.

There is an entire book in how much of higher ed and more broadly society is shaped by the power of rapists

“(this is how men behave)” uhhhh no it’s really not? what the fuck man, all these disgusting creeps insist on being like “we’re ALL like this right fellas?”

Going on four years as the head of staff for a woman legislator has made “me too didn’t even begin to start going far enough” one of my core political beliefs.

There's a problem with men. There's a very serious problem with men, and we have to start saying so out loud even if it hurts their feelings.

Epstein survivor Anouska De Georgiou: The fact that the very people who are meant to lead this country have completely retraumatized us… it’s—I mean—it’s like being raped by the Department of Justice.

I was literally just talking at length yesterday about how I don’t think about my gender much until I run into a wall, usually via a cis dude locked into rigid scripts. It doesn’t even have to be violent, sexual, or extreme — it can be banal & “harmless” exclusion of women from camaraderie & trust.

A big problem in the industry is how many people conflate "Not a danger to me" with "Not a danger to anyone." And I keep seeing the terrible impact of that so maybe stop doing that.

I think often of the women in the Louis CK story—how they all left comedy and never went back, but he’s still going. It’s everywhere and it’s such a loss for them and for us—for things they’ll never make that we’ll never see.

the Epstein files are really devastating because they remind me of how many girls and women miss out on professional opportunities, mentorship and careers because of how many powerful, rich and influential men only view girls and women — and interactions with them — through the lens of sex

"Let he who is without documented association with a pedophilic human trafficker throw th- OW! OW OW OW!!!"

MeToo hurt Weinstein, Cosby, and no one else the idea that it went “too far” and that “boys and men are afraid” because there was a single moment women and girls could talk about harassment and abuse with some limited societal support is so asinine I’ll never stop being mad about it

Gendered violence forms a twisted social capital across all classes, too— with silence and complicity bargained back and forth in the same way, no matter the milieu.

One thing that's so striking about the documents is how clear it is that Epstein and his allies had a gendered class consciousness and felt solidarity with other abusive men up and down the class spectrum.

But then they'd have to reveal that their ostensibly progressive platform is just three white male grievances in a trenchoat.

It feels worth saying that the thing that unifies men as disparate as Noam Chomsky, Deepak Chopra and Trump is patriarchy. Patriarchy, hatred of women, and the need to dominate them, persists across race and class status. Left movements refuse a robust analysis of persisting gender violence.

Sorry, but rape is something working class men also do. I know people have spent about a decade trying to delegitimize any analysis of women as an oppressed class, but reality can't be mooted for the sake of trends.

Actually starting to feel very allergic to the claim that Epstein's crimes are a function of his class. His money obviously increased the scale of his abuse and granted him additional impunity, but to say that wealth was the genesis of his depravity feels like willful blindness to gender.

Absolutely right. I’ve read thousands of criminal case files. Child sex abuse is endemic, crosses all lines of race and class, is broadly tolerated, and always has been. People desperately want this to be an aberration, but it just isn’t.

“Ordinary, salt of the earth people would never tolerate a sexual abuser in their midst. Now time to take a big sip of coffee and respond to this group text with my old fraternity brothers.”

This indifference or enthusiasm for sexual violence is a cultural pathology born of misogyny, not a peculiar or unique degeneracy of the rich. You know people who have responded to rape like that.

I understand the reasons why it’s more jarring and consequential to see it happen among billionaires, but the kind of shrugging disinterest or impishly approving encouragement of sexual abuse among Epstein’s circle is the same dynamic that happens in less powerful milieus.

Woke getting in the way of their sexual assault parties really says it all

In fact eroticized exploitation, abuse, domination, and violence are in fact normative parts of male heterosexuality—they’re largely constitutive of how men define themselves as men. The big feminist and queer intervention in sexual politics has been to say that this is corrosive and unnecessary.

No one who has seen the Epstein case unfold should have any doubt left about why victims don’t report. When reporting means facing more abuse, more exploitation, and more betrayal at the institutional level, while the perpetrators are the leaders of the very systems of “justice” supposed to help you

The fetishization and abuse of girls and young women is just as normalized today as it was when Epstein got started. Look no further than the culture of exploiting child stars, who today are predominantly online influencers, followed by shaming and blaming them for their sexuality as young adults

TENURED YALE PROFESSOR IN AN OP-ED: In our society we have too often accepted the heckler’s veto, allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good and making the refusal to forgive our highest virtue TENURED YALE PROFESSOR IN AN EMAIL: hii jfefrey Can I come to rape party w/a plusone this weekend

Important thing Epstein files show. Certain type of men bond with other men around misogyny. That misogyny is very crucial to how they see themselves. It is their identity, a basis to form a community. Community activities’ involve rape, pedophilia, sexual harassment, etc. It‘s a group phenomenon.

And they're more than willing to topple society because said dicks aren't getting enough attention

A not insignificant number of men on both Left and Right are loath to sign on to any belief system that constrains their dicks

This whole thing reminds me of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony at the Brett Kavanaugh hearing: Kavanaugh and his friend were having fun while sexually assaulting her. It was a bonding experience for them

The dishonest claim by rape apologists and anti-feminists that women make up stories of sexual abuse is cover for those who would rather not argue for what they really believe: that rape is trivial.

The post-Me Too era has really taught me that the underlying issue with the persistence of sexual violence isn’t exactly women’s credibility, as the “believe women” slogan suggested, but rather with rape’s moral status. It’s not that people think it doesn’t happen. They think it doesn’t matter.

I strongly suspect the antipathy to queers is similarly sourced for these people. “We need you straight and male so we can entice you into our rape crimes and then exist in a comfortable state of mutual blackmail, which we call trust” is the strong vibe I get.

For us lady scholars, who have been known to critique homogenous male academic cliques and spaces as exclusionary… consider the money and elite networks that ALL these men benefitted from. All because those lady scholars were likely a bit less interested in sexually assaulting 14 year old girls.

Remember the convo in the Dark Knight when the Joker talks to Harvey Dent in the hospital? "You know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying?" Police brutality on white folk wasn't supposed to be part of the plan.

it’s “moderates” preferring order to justice like MLK said

Under a zero tolerance policy, the first Trump administration separated immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. Data suggests separations are now happening all over the country, often after little more than a traffic stop. (Published Nov. 2025)