Jeffrey Epstein

From ‘Every Man’ to the ‘Epstein Class’: Misogyny in Male Peer Culture Cuts Across Class Lines

PUBLISHED 3/7/2026 by

The rich men surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, and the working and middle-class men who were lured into Dominique Pelicot’s twisted fantasy, navigate the social world from very different sides of the class chasm.

But they share something in common, too: They’re all men who were socialized into a misogynous culture that dehumanizes women, turns them into sexual commodities and licenses men to mistreat them.

Misogynous exploitation is not rooted primarily in plutocratic privilege. The sense of unquestioned entitlement to women’s bodies that many observers have noted about “Epstein class” men is hardly confined to the wealthy.

The Epstein Files Reveal a System Built to Shield the Powerful

PUBLISHED 3/6/2026 by

Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes were not carried out in isolation—they were enabled by a system that repeatedly narrowed investigations, shielded powerful figures and sidelined survivors.

Investigative journalist Julie K. Brown with the Miami Herald has extensively documented the mishandling of the Epstein case. Early reports and accusations were treated with skepticism; initial investigations were shut down; charges were narrowed; powerful actors were shielded; and even meaningful survivor notification of prosecutorial decisions was bypassed. Drawing on more than two decades working within the legal system on domestic violence and sexual assault cases, I see the Epstein files as a stark illustration of how institutions often fail those they are meant to protect.

The partial and selective release of the Epstein files only deepens these concerns. Survivors’ identifying information has been exposed while the names of powerful associates remain redacted. When victims are left vulnerable and power remains protected, accountability has not merely failed—it has been inverted.

This moment demands more than incremental disclosure: It requires full transparency, rigorous investigation and prosecution wherever the evidence leads, so that survivors’ courage is met with the justice they were promised.

There Is Power in the Word ‘Patriarchy.’ We Need to Start Using It.

PUBLISHED 3/1/2026 by

News commentators still overlook the obvious when they speculate about why the majority of white female voters in the last three presidential elections cast their ballots for a dishonest, fraudulent, racist, misogynistic sexual predator or why people who call themselves Christians support someone who embodies in virtually every way the opposite of “what would Jesus do?”

I’m tired of snapping at the talking heads on the TV or computer screen, “Come on, say the P word! It’s the patriarchy, stupid!”

We can trace harmful sex binaries, reproductive control and white Christian nationalism back to the same root system: patriarchy. Naming it is the first step toward dismantling its power. 

‘My Heart Breaks for the Survivors’: Hillary Clinton Defends Anti-Trafficking Record, Demands Transparency in Epstein Probe

PUBLISHED 2/26/2026 by

The following statement was delivered by former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at the start of a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee, as part of its ongoing inquiry into the federal government’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.

In the statement, Clinton tells lawmakers she had no knowledge of Epstein’s or Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal activities and does not recall ever meeting or speaking with Epstein, flying on his planes or visiting any of his properties. She says she has no new information to provide to the committee.

Her testimony is both a denial of involvement and a broader political and policy argument—one that defends her record on combating human trafficking, criticizes the committee’s approach and calls for wider accountability in Epstein-related investigations and anti-trafficking efforts. Clinton characterizes the subpoena as part of a partisan investigation designed to create “political theater” and distract from what she describes as more relevant lines of inquiry, particularly those involving former President Donald Trump and others named in Epstein-related materials.

Keeping Score: Voters Disapprove of Kristi Noem and ICE; Winter Olympics Nears Gender Parity; Challenges to State Abortion Bans Continue

PUBLISHED 2/25/2026 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week:
—“Kristi Noem sees immigrants like me as subhuman,” says Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow.
—A majority of U.S. voters think DHS Secretary Kristi Noem should be removed, and disagree with how ICE is operating.
—Women are 47 percent of athletes at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
—California Gov. Gavin Newsom fired back at threats from Louisiana over abortion protections.
—President Trump appointed no women of color to federal judgeships in his first year in office.
—A new Kansas law introduces a “bounty hunter” aspect to transphobic bathroom bills.
—Some ICE detention facilities and prisons refuse to provide appropriate menstrual products.
—A Kentucky couple was arrested over a year after seeking care for a miscarriage.
—A wave of “common sense” candidates, more than half women, recently won competitive school board races in swing states. Sixty-two percent of “extremist” candidates lost their elections, showing that culture war tactics like book bans may no longer resonate with local voters.

… and more.

The Missing Voices in the Epstein Files’ Media Commentary: Sexual Assault Prevention Educators

PUBLISHED 2/19/2026 by

The Epstein files scandal has all the elements of a gigantic media spectacle. It encompasses everything from true crime to political intrigue, and offers a peak behind closed doors into the lifestyles of the rich and famous. It has more than a little sex and violence. 

It’s a conspiracy theory come to life.

Media commentary has explored seemingly every angle. Or has it? On closer examination, something has been missing.

The Pathetic Price of Entry to Epstein’s World

PUBLISHED 2/12/2026 by

The latest batch of Epstein files—over 3 million documents, only around half of what the Department of Justice reports to have amassed—has unleashed a new cast of characters, a list that includes tech titans, health influencers, litigation rainmakers, university leaders, sports executives, Hollywood moguls and international royalty. None of the those named in the latest tranche of Epstein files strike me as people I ever assumed possessed particularly stellar moral character, and their collective fall from grace doesn’t shock me.

But what does turn my stomach is how pathetically small the price of entry into Epstein’s world appears to have been.

The expressions of regret now surfacing—I am ashamed, this is not who I am!—read less like moral reckonings and more like the lament of those who simply got caught.

The emails reveal a tawdry economy of access: absurd favors, crude jokes, dating advice, shared handwringing about #MeToo, and giddy acceptance of gifts—Apple Watches, Prada bags, monogrammed sweatshirts—that these already powerful figures could easily have bought themselves.

Whether any individual named in the files participated in or witnessed Epstein’s crimes is only part of the story. Just as telling is the desperate desire to remain in his orbit—often long after his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from girls.

That eagerness to maintain proximity, for so little in return, speaks volumes about how power protects itself—and what too many were willing to overlook to stay connected to it.

‘We Will Not Be Sidelined Again’: Survivors Respond After DOJ Releases Epstein Files With Unredacted Names and Personal Details

PUBLISHED 2/5/2026 by and

The Department of Justice has released more than 3 million pages of records related to Jeffrey Epstein. For decades, survivors have begged for answers and accountability. But they say the latest tranche of documents—many containing unredacted names, contact information and identifying details—have left them retraumatized, exposed and furious.

Some describe the release as careless. Others call it deliberate. Many say it confirms what they have long believed: that survivors are still not being centered, protected or heard.

Read survivors’ reactions, in their own words.

“My sister Maria Farmer filed a lawsuit against the government for negligence in this case, and really as I see it this is just further examples of that—of the ways that we have not been protected and that DOJ has not done their job.”

“I can’t help but wonder why the DOJ has once again failed us. Again. It feels like they’re ignoring our need for protection, especially when they’ve taken the time to redact the names of powerful individuals … but not ours. This double standard makes it even harder for us to trust them.”

We Know What We Saw in Minneapolis

PUBLISHED 1/9/2026 by

For women who recognize the dynamics of abuse, the killing of Renee Nicole Good—and the official response to it—follows a chillingly familiar script.

To me, she doesn’t seem to be agitating or obstructing—she appears to wave the ICE vehicles through before masked men emerge from one van, bellowing, “Get out of the fucking car!” She seems to be a scared woman trying to flee violent men, a scenario that resonates acutely with me and many other survivors.

What followed was an Orwellian schema that every abuse victim will instantly recognize: Deny. Attack. Reverse victim and offender. With impunity.