As they network, joke and trade information
The Epstein files reveal a patriarchy in action. This is a world where the men are rich and powerful, and the women are not. The emails showcase the private behaviour of a male ruling class, as they network, joke and trade information. Women exist at the periphery, tolerated because they organise the diaries of the busy men, they arrange food, they grace a table, they provide sex.
A typical email from Epstein to a man in his network will say: “Head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee Thorbjorn Jagland will be staying in ny with me. You might find him interesting.” Epstein is writing to Richard Branson in characteristic style, combining some casual showing off with an offer to share access to someone else influential.
A typical email from Epstein to a woman might say: “Take a selfie of your pussy and send.”
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For women, these files offer an unprecedented chance to eavesdrop on conversations from which they are usually excluded. They provide salutary insights into what a set of distinguished global figures think and say about women when they assume the women aren’t listening.
Salutary but not exhilarating.
There are two groups of people in the Epstein files. The men: the billionaires, the tech entrepreneurs, the bankers, statespeople, politicians, leaders, people who need to be cultivated because they offer Epstein ways to strengthen his network of influence. And the women, who exist as insignificant plus-ones, or as people to whom he doles out money because they are providing him with services. Women feature as objects to be looked at and improved – teeth seen to, weight lost, STDs treated, features fixed. (“You might want to see a doctor about reducing the nose a little before you turn 23,” Epstein suggests to an unnamed woman in July 2017.) The emails show that Epstein is often irritated by the women.
People who matter on one side, and people who exist to serve the people who matter on the other.
It’s very master and servant. The rich, the landowners, the squires, the archbishops – they are real, and they matter. The people who do the laundry of the squires and archbishops – they are not real in the way of the squires. They exist, they’re there, but they’re like shadows, or the undead. You couldn’t possibly have a conversation with them, because what would they say?
