Rebecca Solnit on what the current Epstein discourse is missing:
In response to a lawsuit from Epstein victims claiming "that the largest U.S. bank turned a blind eye to the late financier's sex trafficking," JP Morgan Chase paid out $290 million a few years ago. I wrote in 2019, when Epstein had just been arrested and was still alive, "Maybe one of the reasons rape has so often been portrayed as 'a stranger leaps out of the bushes' is so we’ll imagine rapists acting alone. But in so many cases rapists have help in the moment and forever after, and the help is often so powerful, broad, and deep—well, that’s why we call it rape culture."
One reason this violence is so unacknowledged is that it is in the most literal sense not news – there are tides of hatred and violence against other groups that ebb and flow, but violence against women is global and enduring, a constant rather than an event. Another is that law enforcement and the legal system have often been more interested in protecting perpetrators, and society has often normalized and even celebrated violence against women.
As always, this diary is a group effort. Thanks to mettle fatigue, elenacarlena, and the WOW crew for links and discussion.
Violence and Harassment:
Jezebel: The truth about Epstein’s clients is already available. All we have to do is listen to the victims.
The website Tea was supposed to be for women to share information for dating safety. But after a massive data breach, users’ names, pictures, and other personal information have been posted online.
Meg Pillow on “promising young women,” abusive men, and confronting her own abuser decades later.
Reproductive Rights and Health Care:
Fifteen QOP attorneys general, led by Arkansas AG Tim Griffin, have signed an open letter attacking abortion pill shield laws.
In the 3 years since its total ban on abortion, Idaho has lost over a third of its ob/gyns.
Moira Donegan tries to make sense of this administration’s decision to destroy $10 million worth of birth control instead of distributing it.
Secretary Kennedy Swears in Susan Monarez as CDC Director. Fingers crossed, but I’m not holding out much hope for anyone in this administration.
Workplace and Economic Issues:
The Conversation: All women — not just mothers — could benefit from more workplace flexibility.
The Conversation: Togo’s ‘Nana-Benz’: how cheap Chinese imports of African fabrics have hurt the famous women traders.
Inside the Paris restaurant where the chefs are fighting for feminism.
Defunding SNAP will be disastrous for women and kids.
Environment:
In Earth Matters this week: Black women fight pollution and gentrification threatening Houston neighborhood.
Media:
As if women weren’t already held to impossible beauty standards: Vogue just featured an AI-generated “model.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the conduit for federal funds to NPR and PBS, is shutting down. NPR president & CEO Katherine Maher stated MPR would be "stepping up to support locally owned, nonprofit public radio stations and local journalism across the country, working to maintain public media's promise of universal service, and upholding the highest standards for independent journalism and cultural programming in service of our nation."
Uncategorizable:
This post is making the rounds on Bluesky:
x
The left is completely silent on the subject of men getting laid - which, generally speaking, they are v.interested in doing and will continue to be interested in regardless of whether progressives want to talk about it. So the stage has been left entirely clear for the far-right.
— Ian Dunt (@iandunt.bsky.social) 2025-08-01T07:55:59.206Z
On the one hand, I get that the poster (and the article he attaches) is trying to address a problem: when young men look for advice on sex or dating, search algorithms and social media serve up far-right content like Tate and other misogynists. On the other hand, framing the issue as “men getting laid” makes it sound like sex is a service that women provide, and that we should solve it by making sure men get serviced.
Right-wing advice to men is popular because it lies and flatters. It tells men that they’re entitled to sex, and that women who say no are wronging men. That message is going to be an easier sell for some people than the feminist message: women are people, we get to make our own choices, and sometimes that choice will be no.
Amazing Women:
The Amazing Flying Submariner Appalachian Road Scholar Brooklyn Pennsylvania Librarian Virginia Brooks Manbeck.
NNO.net Oklahoma Freshman State Rep. Amanda Clinton (Cherokee) Gets Statehouse Approval for Studies on Tribal Relations, Data Expansion.
Slavenka Drakulic: Croatian Feminist Writer Who Never Shrinks From Hard Truths.
Skylar Davis, a “period poverty” shero (see below).
Action Item:
Your local shelters and food banks need period products.
