Letters | Are we missing the real story in the Jeffrey Epstein saga?
Readers discuss modern thinking about sex, David Webb, and road safety
But I wonder whether we’re missing something so obvious that we’ve become blind to it. And that is that Epstein – as sickening as his behaviour was – is not as much of an outrageous outlier as we like to think; indeed he may simply be an extreme example of what is all too common and all around us.
We are (rightly) disgusted by the way Epstein and friends spoke of and treated women, using these very real people, with real dignity and worth, as nothing more than sex toys to satisfy their fantasies.
The question to ponder is: is not this kind of thinking happening 10,000 times a day in our own city, in offices and locker rooms, at the bar, on social media, on porn websites and on the MTR? How many men (and women) have thought or spoken about sexual experiences or other people in a demeaning or objectifying way?
What is shocking about this story may be how common this is: if not the sex parties, at least the thinking, the language, the mentality that says it is acceptable to view other people as mere objects. Isn’t there a lot more of Epstein inside all of us than we’d like to admit?