15 Year Olds are Children and they Need Protection

Why are we debating if pedophilia is 'really that bad'? To protect pedophiles. This carefully crafted PR narrative is designed to make you think children can consent to sex with adults. They can't.

Two weeks ago some of the Epstein survivors released a PSA video calling on the government to release the files.

In it they stood motionless, holding photos of themselves at the age they were when trafficked and abused by Epstein, Maxwell and many others.

Why did they do this? Because the closer we get to the release of the Epstein files, the more the MAGA machine attempts to push a narrative that the victims weren’t actually children. They were ‘barely legal’ adults. “Young women”. It wasn’t ‘that bad’.

I wish I were joking, but we’re seeing it all over social media.

Megyn Kelly went on her Sirius XM show and said ‘I haven’t seen anyone under 10 come forward.’ She acted as though ten years old should be the bar for pedophilia. Force a 12 year old to have sex? That’s ok… they’re almost grown up anyways.

Shortly after Megyn’s show aired, men flocked to social media to out themselves as pedophiles.

For some reason, there a lot of men who are only too happy to admit to being sexual predators.

Are they looking for MAGA street cred? Do they want to get in Trump’s good graces? I’m not sure. My fear is that it’s even more sinister than that… it’s another move towards Project 2025’s ultimate goal of removing women’s rights and making us the property of men again.

They want to normalize grown men having sex with teenagers because if they get their way, we will be married off as soon as we hit puberty. We will go from our father’s home to our husband’s home with no time in between. No chance to become independent. No ability to build the life we want for ourselves. No retaining our innocence.

We must not let that happen.

Image Description: A photo of four women standing shoulder to shoulder and holding photos of themselves as young girls.

What About Trump?

Don’t get me wrong, I also believe this push to normalize pedophilia is designed to insulate Trump from the inevitable release of the Epstein files. I think his team have come to the conclusion that they can’t stop it from happening, so their only hope is to shift the narrative and somehow make pedophilia acceptable.

It’s our job to ensure they don’t get away with it.

If Trump participated in the rape and trafficking of children, he must be removed from office, arrested and charged accordingly. Same with every other monster in those files.

I don’t care if they’re Democrats or Republicans, celebrities, journalists or politicians. If you hurt children that way, you must pay the price.

What’s particularly egregious is many of the people doing an about face on this issue are the same folks who were screaming about Epstein when Biden was President.

They wouldn’t shut up about the cabal of pedophiles, pizza gate and how demonic it is to rape and assault children. The Epstein survivors haven’t changed their age, they were always teenagers.

So why was it a horrific crime a few years ago and now they want us to believe it’s socially acceptable and ‘not that bad’?

It’s because they want to cling to power. They want their team to ‘win’. They want Trump to stay in charge.

As I said in a Note the day the video dropped, the Epstein files aren’t a team sport. What was done to those children was wrong, and everyone involved must be brought to justice. If you are suddenly pushing the narrative that it wasn’t ‘that bad’ just because your team is now implicated? You deserve to be punished too.

Video Description: The Epstein Survivors PSA

Why Don’t the Survivors Name Names?

This is the other prevalent narrative going around. People are blaming the survivors. They’re claiming that they shouldn’t need the government to release the files, they can just go to the police or publicly name their assaulter.

There are between 300,000 and 400,000 untested rape kits in police stations across the United States. That’s thousands of women who did go to the police and were denied justice. Those numbers don’t include all the people who went to the hospital or police and weren’t even given a rape kit.

1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Many advocates argue that number is probably closer to 1 in 2. Yet vanishingly few rapists are ever charged, prosecuted or sent to jail.

They generally get away with it, and what’s worse, our system is designed to punish the victims.

They’re asked things like ‘what were you wearing? What were you drinking? Were you encouraging him?’

Their entire lives are put on trial looking for any evidence that they invited the behaviour, instead of saying that no one ever ‘invites’ this behaviour and any man doing it is the one in the wrong.

The victims have their lives ripped apart, have to relive the assault over and over again and more often that not, their rapist still goes free.

Now imagine your rapist is one of the most powerful men in the world. That’s what the Epstein survivors are up against.

The men who participated in these horrific crimes are rich, powerful and could easily destroy the women who come forward.

They could bury them in defamation lawsuits. Threaten their lives and the lives of their families. Many of them have already been threatened and dropped their cases as a result.

The government should be the one to name names, and then they should prosecute all the offenders. You can’t expect these women to endure any more trauma and pain than they’ve already been through.

Without the full weight and support of the US government behind them, they won’t ever get justice. The men will never be prosecuted because power insulates and protects. It shields.

As a society we have to say that power has protected predators for far too long and it’s time for change.

Misogyny in Medicine, Women’s Rights and Disability Justice

The Epstein files are clearly a women’s rights issue. Sexual assault, misogyny and rape are serious problems which need to be addressed.

But just like in the case of Gisele Pelicot, who I wrote about last year, medical misogyny and disability justice are also part of this broader topic.

There can be no social justice without disability justice. Why? Because disabled people are often the first group to be mistreated, left by the wayside or discriminated against.

We’re treated as ‘less than’ or ‘useless eaters’ and in many ways society still views discriminating against disabled people as socially acceptable.

The President has publicly mocked a disabled reporter and said that disabled people ‘should be left to die’. He recently used the ‘R slur’ to describe Governor Walz, and since then more MAGA followers have begun using it as well.

Those in positions of power exploit this. They test the limits on us. They see what they can get away with .

When you fail to stand up for disabled people, you are showing them that you will accept atrocities.

Almost everyone will become disabled eventually. Unless you die young and suddenly, you will experience disability in your lifetime. It’s one of the only minority groups you can join anytime and yet most people act like they will be the exception. They act like the rest of us did something ‘wrong’ to deserve our fate.

We see this same blame with the Epstein survivors. There’s a huge push among people on the right to blame them for what happened. To say they deserved it, they made bad choices, or worst of all, they ‘liked it’ so it wasn’t really rape.

It’s a disgusting narrative shift designed to get us to see those women as ‘less than’. They want you to see them as expendable and not worth getting worked up over. They want you to accept atrocities.

Do not allow it to happen.

They are not expendable. They are not to blame. They are absolutely worth getting worked up over.

Lastly, medical misogyny played a role in what happened to many of these girls. The intersection of misogyny in medicine, sexual violence and disability is one that can’t be ignored.

The Epstein survivors experienced unspeakable trauma. Going through an experience like that can and will have catastrophic effects on both physical and mental health.

Many of the women also had health issues while they were being trafficked, and those issues were ‘managed’ by Epstein.

In her book Nobody’s Girl, Virginia Giuffre spoke of how she experienced severe bleeding and cramping after one of her assaults.

She said that Epstein and Maxwell took her to the hospital where Epstein lied about her age and was the only one to communicate with the doctors. She was told she had a miscarriage, yet had a tiny incision on her abdomen suggestive of surgery for an ectopic pregnancy.

These girls were denied autonomy over their medical care. They weren’t given the full story about their health complications. They weren’t protected from pregnancy or STIs.

The physicians treating these girls had a chance to protect them. They could have involved authorities. They could have called a social worker. They could have not allowed a powerful man to dictate the way in which they cared for their patients.

They neglected their duty to do no harm. They failed these girls. Gisele Pelicot’s doctors did the same thing. She went to them over and over with complaints of bruising, vaginal pain, STIs, memory loss and more… and every time they deferred to her husband.

They deferred to the man in the room at the expense of their patient.

This must be stopped.

Too many rape victims end up with lifelong health challenges as a result of their assault, and they may experience disability as well.

They deserved better than this. We all deserve better than this. No one should ever be forced to have sex against their will, least of all children.

Do not allow those in power to change the narrative.

Do not allow them to tell you that certain people are expendable or deserve the harm that comes to them.

Do not allow them to inure you to the horrors of sexually assaulting and trafficking children.

Keep speaking out. Demand the release of the full and unredacted Epstein files and demand that everyone involved be brought to justice.

My sincere hope is that one day we won’t have to fight like this anymore. That eventually we will stop the cycle of abuse.

Until that day, we keep shining light into the darkness. We keep standing with all survivors of sexual assault. We insist that shame change sides.

Have you experienced sexual abuse? Is it something you’re comfortable talking about? If you want to share your experiences please feel free to do so in the comments below.

It’s something that is difficult to discuss and yet the more we talk about it, the more we remove the stigma and show other survivors that they aren’t alone.