After reading Virginia Roberts Guiffre’s book Nobody’s Girl, I’m confused, broken-hearted, and lost for words. I’m left trying to understand how a man who was brilliant, wealthy, and considered by some handsome, could find a 14 or 15-year-old girl as attractive, in any kind of sexual way. Jeffrey Epstein came by his money by using cloak and dagger. He got a break at Bear Stearns by lying about his college credentials. But his supervisor gave him a pass because Jeffrey was dating his daughter. Now, because he was rich, he could do whatever he wanted.
The book is a part biography of Virginia’s life, and part horror story of how Ghislaine and Jeffrey got a hold of her. It chronicles her early sexual abuse at home, and then at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell. She spends a lifetime in their prison and eventually a self-imposed prison from pain and abuse. We don’t know if her pain was from various accidents she suffered or her body held onto the pain from the horrible abuse.
The correlation between Nobody’s Girl and the history of abuse towards women reaches well back in time. You only need to visit a museum that houses Greek and Roman pottery. You will find the earliest version of Playboy magazine before your eyes. The vases and urns are on the museum’s gallery shelves, turned so the pornographic scenes face away from the viewer. Caligula’s character, a megalomaniac dating back to the Roman Empire in 39AD, and the city of Rome and the palace were his playground for carnal debauchery, much like Epstein and his compatriots today.
Another historical example of men corrupting young women was in 70 CE. The Temple in Jerusalem, when operational, before the western retaining wall became the Wailing Wall, one had to stop at the front gate and give dispensation for the priest to speak with God on one’s behalf. People would bring a cow or a goat as an offering. Others would prostitute their own daughters or degrade a woman they cared little for to ingratiate themselves to the Lord.
During modern times, in the early part of the last century, you see that Mussolini, Hitler, and others used their positions to find and brutalize young women. Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present, by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, points out how men who rose to authoritarian power could surround themselves with people like Ghislane Maxwell, who encouraged their sexual predilections.
As you read this, a young kid is being fooled, influenced, or harmed by someone who thought they were easy prey. Nothing the child wanted, nothing consensual, just merely the whim of the attacker. In Guiffre’s book, she sights on many occasions how Epstein and Maxwell would use their power over young women by promising them a dream and using them until their souls were snuffed out. They would promise to send the young woman to the best art school in Paris, the best dancing school in Russia, like the Bolshoi, or even find out that a family member was ill and swear to pay for their medical expenses. The problem being that between the ask and the give, the poor girl was so abused that many lost their will to pursue their dreams. In Virginia’s case, they finally sent her to massage school in Thailand when, in their sick minds, she was older and all used up.
History shows that just when you get rid of one bloated miscreant, there is one right behind them. While Jeffrey is dead, and Ghislaine stays in prison with the promise of a pardon, two brothers named Andrew and Tristan Tate are carrying on where Jeff left off in his stock in trade. To make it au courant, they are marketing this as the “manosphere”. See the New York Times’ article
The gift that these predators have is to smell weakness in their prey. In Virginia’s case, her abuse started as a young woman. Her father and uncle abused her, and as with most women who suffer abuse, no one believed her. Virginia suggests that her father might have “sold” her to Epstein because they were down and out. The child finds itself in this unnatural position. In the end, they think the abuser really cares and feels forced to do anything to make them happy, similar to Stockholm syndrome. That is why Virginia and thousands of other women fell prey.
According to psychologists, there are two poignant moments in a girl’s life where she bonds with her father. These two junctures present how she relates to men. The first time is when a girl is six, and then again at sixteen. If you are lucky to have those two moments with your father, chances are you will function with relative normalcy in dating. By sixteen, Ms. Giuffre was well under Jeff and Ghislaine’s spell.
In Virginia’s case, the light between her father and her mother’s sexual relation went out. Maybe Virginia’s mother found her husband’s actions with Virginia a relief from her “marital duties”. Her mother never believed her nor helped her when she complained about her father’s unwanted advances. It’s not clear whether Virginia took her life because of sexual trauma or pain from her neck from a horrible car accident.
What do we have to do? Why do men get a free pass on this? And I know it’s not all men. It breaks my heart that Virginia didn’t get to live her life as a normal woman. Yes, she had a husband and children, but she committed suicide. Jeffrey and Ghislaine robbed her, and so many other victims, of any chance of having a normal life. Virginia led the charge of lawsuits, reports to the authorities, and after Virginia’s death, many of the others have followed in her footsteps and carried a torch for her sacrifices.
There are three actual significant moments in history for the women’s movement. In 1848, at Seneca Falls, NY, those women purported that, like the Constitution said, “All women and men are created equal.” They were fighting for equality for women, the right to vote, and to abolish slavery. Then in the 60s, Gloria Stineman founded MS magazine, and women began burning their bras. Finally, the “Me Too” movement emerged, even as Epstein was preying on young girls.
This book is not an easy read. Especially if you have ever been a victim of rape, sexual abuse, or any unwanted sexual advances. The value, however, is to edify oneself on the operation that was Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and how they carried on under the radar for so many years. Perhaps Nobody’s Girl can illustrate how these two people ensnared thousands of young girls and countless intellectual and rich men into using and corrupting these poor victims. Each story is an onion with so many deep layers that are going to take years to unfold. But the other importance of this book is to serve as a memorial to a woman named Virginia Roberts Guiffre, who was somebody’s girl.
