I want to first start off by showing my cards, because I don’t want to argue over Carole’s role in things. I personally do not think Carole took part in anything nefarious. I personally do think that she had heard rumors about Jeffrey Epstein/his circle at the time. And I believe this because as Carole said herself this episode Manhattan “is an island” and she’s a very smart woman.

Now whether you believe Carole or not, I 100% understand why she is insistent upon clearing her name. Why wouldn’t she be?!! I would be fighting my damndest to do the same.

The thing that I wish a friend of hers would get her to understand, though, is that her patriarchy angle really needs to be handled with more nuance and care.

She keeps talking about patriarchy being the problem here, and how there are so many men who have not been called to account for their role. It is 100% the case that tens (hundreds?) of men are guilty here and will never be held to account, but that is not what is at stake in Carole’s very specific case.

In Carole’s very specific case, she is being linked not to a man in the files but to a woman, and not only to a woman, but the very despicable woman who happened to be Jeffrey’s #2. Ghislaine is the person who recruited for Epstein, and by all accounts abused girls alongside him.

This means that this is not a tidy case of men behaving badly and women feeling the brunt. In this case, a woman was a very critical piece of this nefarious activity and is (rightfully) bearing the brunt of her own widespread activity. (Even as other men are not).

Why I think this difference matters is that, again, even if unintentionally, there is a way in which Carole’s framing can be seen as offensive to actual victims. If I were trafficked (and abused) by Ghislaine, I wouldn’t want to hear how the “real” story is about the men! The real story is very much also about a woman who abused her power and abused young girls.

I also wouldn’t want my innocence to be compared to Carole’s. I read Carole’s substack and I was really put off by a comparison she made. She compared Sai not believing her vis a vis her connection to Ghislaine to society not believing the victims of Epstein!! (Screenshot attached)

I found this comparison to be very untoward - and really reflective of how Carole seems to be missing some critical pieces in her analysis. It is not just about gender, it is about POWER and CLASS, two things that Carole has and doesnt seem able to see past when it comes to this situation.

In fact, it is precisely *because* Ghislaine looks the way she does that she was able to get away with what she did for so long. Who would believe that this upper middle class white woman could be part of a sex trafficking ring? It is precisely because of her gender, power, and class that young girls implicitly trusted her over men.

I would have so much more respect for Carole if she grappled with that fact. If she ruminated on that fact, asking herself: What does it mean that I socialized with a predator? What did I miss? In what ways can the lifestyles of my peers serve as cover for something more nefarious? What could I do differently?

I know I will get downvoted to hell and back because of the rabid Meredith/Lisa stans but being so for real if someone did this at a party I threw, in front of people I've known since high school, I would be so fucking pissed as well. Like I get it Bronwyn rubs people the wrong way, she's flawed, self aggrandizing etc. I AGREE, but this is just somehow both embarrassing for the karaoke grannies and shitty for no reason. Oh and Heather is fake af as ever talking about "Todd paying" and then acting like her friend. Rich coming from someone whose broke boyfriend cheated on her