Was I wrong to demand the release of the Epstein files?

Did I miss the point? Will releasing the files make a difference? An uninvited stranger once told me it wouldn't. I so want to prove him wrong.

Prisoner Mountbatten Windsor. I eagerly await his new official title.

We have reached a turning point.

The release of more of the heinous and horrendous Epstein files has focused our attentions on the realities of gender-based violence. Realities that women and girls have been living with for years.

We can no longer pretend that sexual abuse of minors and women is a hidden scourge of the underclass, or the result of a cultureless immigrant population or a failing of those that hide in the dark shadows, those considered ‘less’ than us.

The truth is coming out. Slowly. Drip by redacted drip. The truth was always there if we chose to believe it but somehow the words of the victims of Epstein’s Island of abuse were never enough. Probably because they were the words of women.

We called for the release of the files. I marched for it. For the hard proof. And now we stand on the precipice of revelations and receipts that could topple governments, monarchies and men. Lots of men.

I am waiting, with bated breath for the revolution to begin. For the heads to roll, for the indictments to be, well indicted, for the beginning of the end of gender-based violence because if this is not the line in the sand that all women and girls have been waiting for then what is?

But I am cautious. I am reminded of a man I met at the Stop Trump rally last October in London. Not all anti Trump protestors are created equal, and this man took exception to my placard that called for the release of the Epstein files.

Did I need a more composite sign?

‘You’re wasting your time’ was his uninvited and unwanted opening gambit.

He argued that whatever was in the files would not change the status quo. The abuse of girls and women is not enough to get people out on the streets he reckoned. Hike the price of people’s gas, threaten their jobs, hit them in the pocket and you start a revolution. Reveal the appalling abuse of women and girls? It won’t be enough, he claimed. It won’t change anything.

‘I am not saying its right’, he countered. ‘I am just saying its true’.

Of course, I argued against him, for the best part of an hour. But his words have stayed with me. I could see there was at least a grain of truth in what he was saying.

Perhaps I made a mistake calling for the release of the Epstein files? Perhaps my placard should have been clearer? Perhaps when it comes to protecting women and girls from sadistic predators, the world needs a step-by-step guide?

Releasing the files is only one step. ‘Who is in the files?’ is the beginning of a whole set of questions. The most important now being ‘When do the prosecutions start?’.

The Epstein files are not the sickest game of ‘Guess who?’ or a vile pedophilic version of ‘Where’s Wally?’ They are evidence. Evidence of criminal activity and should be treated as such and used as such. If not, what was the point of releasing them?

Are the files enough I wonder. To make a difference, to start the revolution that women and girls have needed for so long. To call to arms everyone who wants to stop the systemic, institutionalised, brutalisation of women and girls and to punish the men who are responsible. My uninvited agitator would argue not.

He would say that there may be some discourse, a few heads might roll, or at least have to find a new place to lie down (I am looking at you Andrew Mountbatten Windsor), a few women may be catapulted onto centre stage (Ghislaine, Sarah ‘mother of the year’ Ferguson) but by and large the world will keep turning and this whole sorry saga will be consigned to the annuls of time and filed under ‘the ones that got away’ or for women and girls under ‘missed opportunity’.

So, I write today to ask that we make sure this opportunity is not missed. That we don’t’ just paw and gasp over the sordid pictures of statemen in their Y fronts and ex royals hovering over unconscious girls.

I write to wave a different placard, an updated version of the original. I want to prove that guy wrong. Let this be the turning point. Release the files, the whole files of course. But prosecute the offenders, all of them. And let these files one day be filed under the title of ‘The beginning of the end of gender-based violence’. For me, the files will not be closed until then.

Thank you for reading, I would love to know your comments on this post and I would be grateful if you could like or restack and keep the momentum strong. With love and gratitude, Rebecca X