"It is a Saturday evening in February 2013, and Jeffrey Epstein is messaging Bill Gates's assistant about guests for a dinner he wants to organise. People for Bill, the email begins. Epstein starts listing possible candidates: the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, the film director Woody Allen, the prime minister of Qatar, a couple of Harvard academics, the billionaire CEO of Hyatt hotels, a White House communications director, a former US secretary of defence. He names 10 powerful men, before suggesting Anne Hathaway (really)."
"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 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."
Emails from Jeffrey Epstein show systematic networking among wealthy and powerful men, with lists of elite guests and offers to share access to influential figures. The correspondence treats women as peripheral, often objectified, tasked with diary management, hospitality, physical appearance, or sexual availability. Messages to men emphasize introductions and status; messages to women include sexualized demands and comments about appearance and health. The files reveal a private culture of a male ruling class that normalizes transactional relationships, tokenized female presence, and the exchange of power and favors among elite men.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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