Helen Rumbelow wrote in The Times this week about how it feels, as a woman, to read the Epstein Files. The article wasn’t about Epstein’s trafficking of underage girls for sex. It was about how men talk about women when women aren’t present. It was extremely unpleasant and difficult to read.
I read the article in the print edition, over lunch. Afterwards I texted someone close to me (a woman), said the article was really good – absolutely worth reading – but added that she might prefer NOT to read it.
Then I briefly contemplated sharing a post somewhere describing how I felt about reading that article, as a man who has a mother and a sister and a wife and a daughter and friends etc etc. But I chickened out, didn’t want to look like I was virtue signalling, or whatever. Didn’t want someone to point out my own less-than-perfect behaviours and outlook when I was younger, particularly at school, too scared to speak up against that kind of talk. I haven’t heard anything like it for years, which tells you something – but I don’t know what.
My friend Isabel Berwick put something on LinkedIn, saying that several people (all women) had recommended Helen Rumbelow’s Times article to her. Now I felt ashamed for NOT posting anything. So I left a comment which closely resembles what you have just read here.