Predator Networks

When news of men’s coordinated sex attacks erupt in the media, such as the recent Cornell 7, or the Giséle Pelicot case, or the global Whatsapp groups dedicated to rape techniques, not to mention the Epstein files - we desperately want to think about these atrocities against women and children as an abomination. We call for the punishment of the depraved men who did it. We feel compelled to think of these crimes as a horrific breakdown of societal norms.

Author Aurora Linnea has written an extraordinary essay titled The Unexceptional Jeffrey Epstein: Rapist Everyman and Ubermensch published on her Substack Holistic Anti Atrocity Feminism - which takes the very opposite view. In her essay, Aurora examines Epstein’s sex crimes enterprise - trading girls and women to other men for sexual abuse - in a historical context. She traces the practice of men working together in informal or formal networks to sexually violate, back in history - showing us that Epstein and all other predator networks IS our social norm, and actually fits very neatly into our cultural landscape.

In this hour we talk about how we stop pretending that Epstein is a rare monstrosity, what gang rape as a practice reveals about male sexual mores and norms, and the very central role that sexual violence against girls and women play in how men bond with each other and how they broker status and power amongst one another. Or as Aurora puts it, “ women and girls are very valuable capital in the homosocial maneuvering of men under patriarchy.”

EPISODE LINKS

Man Against Being (Spinifex Press) by Aurora Linnea

The Unexceptional Jeffrey Epstein: Rapist Everyman and Ubermensch

CONTACT US

Website: subjecttopower.com

Instagram: @subject2power

X: @SubjectToPower

email us at subjecttopower@gmail.com