Thank you, Azza, for this terrific article. You are trying to set the records straight, but basically fighting against windmills, just like the victims of Epstein/Maxwell and so many others, who have yet to be named.
Until the male perpetrators in this almost never-ending mess get outed and publicly shamed - and until more women get more actual power, I'm afraid nothing is going to change.
What I want to know is, Who took all these pictures, and why? Whoever the photographers were, they must know a lot more than what has been made public.
I thought perhaps the “other pictures” of the president and his harem are a fairer portrayal than him entering a jet. Makes you wonder how self censorship affects everyone
It's an interesting perspective. And I have no idea how much the media choosing each image is TRYING to bias their audience or not.
But for me... I don't need the pictures at all. I just need to know if these CHILDREN, now adults, are telling the truth. And if they are, I would like to see the criminals go to jail.
Twenty plus years of really flawed "investigations" and a complete lack of follow through on the part of the DOJ in any form surely makes me wonder what they are covering up and why. It makes it easy to believe the women claiming to be victims and no photo of Trump getting on to Air Force One will change the way he has shown himself to be a philandering womanizer, a cheat, a fraud and an habitual liar. Taking it a step further to believe he's also a pedophile is easy to believe. But a photograph isn't going to influence me much in either direction.
Yes. It's what has me seriously considering "conspiracy theories" for the first time in my life. The things the FBI and DOJ acknowledge that they knew... but chose not to follow up on is just mind-boggling.
It's probably not a "real" conspiracy. It's the often-observed effect that men do not take sexual assault seriously. I believe the figure is that more than 85% of reports of sexual assault are just ignored by the police. Or if they can't, you get cases like Brock Turner who get a slap on the wrist for committing a violent felony that destroyed the victim's life forever. Or there was a case near me where a man raped his daughters for years and the male judge give this long speech about he was such a good man and refused to sentence him even though the jury found him very guilty.
Respectfully, this may be because you are not a woman. Images of women have always been more manipulative than images of men, I think. We are framed a certain way and then told we must behave that way, or we are bad and wrong if we do not. Or vice versa.
And I do believe that photos influence us mightily, though subliminally. That's why so many just don't process the emotions or conclusions they prompt within us. I think of what we learned about subliminal images in advertising when I was in high school. It caused me to always take visual promotion with a grain of salt.
Always glad to see your posts, Mark. Have a good day.
Thank you, Azza, for your observations. I think your questions are important and warrant further reflection.
I've often noticed that coverage of "white collar criminals" of various kinds, usually but not always male, do often seem to picture the perps or alleged perps more in "power mode" than not. Of course, I imagine images of these folks doing nefarious deeds aren't all that easy to come by, but to your very valid point, illustrating/endorsing the power differential between these perps and the survivors verges on a kind of propaganda. (Perhaps it would be editorially fairer to both sides just to use cropped head shots as a means of providing a more even-handed presentation -- but I sincerely doubt that will ever happen.)
I also find myself wondering exactly why many of these pictures were taken. Who was holding that camera? Was the photographer being paid to capture these images? Why was the event or the moment being memorialized? For whose album or collection or files?
I find that photo of the erstwhile prince and the teen-aged Virginia Guiffre just heartbreaking -- not only because of the age difference, but also because the difference between his formal and expensive-looking attire and her casual, revealing, slightly cheesy clothing highlights the vast differences in their class backgrounds and resources in a way that renders her so seemingly vulnerable and at-risk. "What is this very young girl doing at this kind of a party?" Is she there on her own? How, and why?
The normative assumption that the status and power of the well-resourced somehow "deserve" greater protection from public embarrassment than do the bodies and lives of young women (for whom the damages generally amount to much more than mere embarrassment), especially if they come from poor or working class backgrounds is infuriating.
Daaang, Azza, your questions cut sharp. I shrink from answering them. I'm ashamed that I didn't notice these things; we just lap up whatever the press sees fit to attach to the content we read. But the men especially... do they buy up the embarrassing photos? We already know that people like Donald Trump pay to silence their victims. It was astonishing watching Stormy Daniels testify at trial. it was astonishing seeing Michael Cohen go to prison for his boss. Maybe we can only handle a certain amount of truth.
Thank you for provoking more introspection than I had given this topic until now. Let us turn to the Bill Cosby trial next.
Add to that, who do people see in those photos, as in, do people in power or people who wear business suits for their work see their potential colleagues in these photos? If they can’t imagine themselves or the people they associate with engaging in Epstein’s network, then can they actually see that this happened? The level of denial from people in his circle, who attended his parties and visited his island and other locales and benefited from his connections has been reported on extensively. People could have known but didn’t, even when immersed. Something society depends on, or rather, something some people in society believe they need, crumbles if they see the truth. But, humanity won’t crumble because of the truth. And, the truth is, as many as there were who associated with Epstein, it was a tiny fraction of the whole of humanity. It’s a festering wound that requires debridement in order to heal.
Spot on Michelle Jordan. The word "apostasy" (def. apostasy, - "defection" or "revolt"). It refers to leaving ones religious faith or principles. It perfectly describes the abandonment of morality or ethical behavior. Apostate behavior, specifically, refers to behavior engaged in by people who feel that they have a right to engage in behavior (mostly sexual behavior) others feel to be immoral (a sin) because they do not believe in religion. It is a way of justifying rape and it has been widely practiced throughout all of mankind's existence.
Many men (and a few women) feel they have a right to engage in apostatic behavior and, as a mater of fact many men actually are proud of this behavior to others without their consent, for they feel they have a right to do things (like beating up others), which is another form of apostatic behavior.
Please see Prince Andrew engaged in apostate rape with a woman (above). Apostatic behavior is widespread in varying degrees in men everywhere and is most prevalent in the movie industry who use apostatic behavior widely in their plot lines.
These people are disgusting. 🤢 They know they are abusing these girls and young women. Yet they continue to do it anyway. That’s called apostasy and it’s sickening. The split screen says it all.
This was a profound essay that really caused me to consider the photos and how they "worked" the public image of predator and prey. It is all too common even or especially today to consider the girls were too suggestive or willing participants. Why is it so hard for society to believe the perpetrators over the prey? It seems like both sides are playing roles, one is dominant and shows themselves to their privileged status, and the others, yes smiling, are doing whatever it took to survive, and some didn't even do that in this sick world. It is our duty to speak for the powerless, to speak truth to power not just politically, but about private lives that wrecked other lives in their search for pleasure.
Consider the golden spoof statues that have appeared on the National Mall of Trump and Epstein. Those may be propaganda at its finest, though used to lampoon the reverence afforded--or once afforded--those men.
The AI-generated descriptions that I see when I hover my mouse over the photos is pretty bizarre. The last one says "Several images of a person doing CPR."
Depend on human beings' words or stated viewpoints NOT machine-generated words or viewpoints attributed to machines. It is "pretty bizarre" for me to write that machines have viewpoints!
I don't know if there is any way to "properly" show the victims. If you show them as groomed and sexualized children, all of the people who buy into rape culture will assume it was their fault somehow. And if you show them as figures in power suits, people lose sympathy. That has always been the "trap" the patriachy uses: it doesn't matter what women do since all choices are seen as wrong.
Thank you, Azza, for this terrific article. You are trying to set the records straight, but basically fighting against windmills, just like the victims of Epstein/Maxwell and so many others, who have yet to be named.
Until the male perpetrators in this almost never-ending mess get outed and publicly shamed - and until more women get more actual power, I'm afraid nothing is going to change.
I find these Azza Cohen articles fascinating. It's stunning how much I've missed over the years, but this is helping me think about framing.
What I want to know is, Who took all these pictures, and why? Whoever the photographers were, they must know a lot more than what has been made public.
I thought perhaps the “other pictures” of the president and his harem are a fairer portrayal than him entering a jet. Makes you wonder how self censorship affects everyone
It's an interesting perspective. And I have no idea how much the media choosing each image is TRYING to bias their audience or not.
But for me... I don't need the pictures at all. I just need to know if these CHILDREN, now adults, are telling the truth. And if they are, I would like to see the criminals go to jail.
Twenty plus years of really flawed "investigations" and a complete lack of follow through on the part of the DOJ in any form surely makes me wonder what they are covering up and why. It makes it easy to believe the women claiming to be victims and no photo of Trump getting on to Air Force One will change the way he has shown himself to be a philandering womanizer, a cheat, a fraud and an habitual liar. Taking it a step further to believe he's also a pedophile is easy to believe. But a photograph isn't going to influence me much in either direction.
Didn’t the FBI find many of the complaints or reports to be credible?
Yes. It's what has me seriously considering "conspiracy theories" for the first time in my life. The things the FBI and DOJ acknowledge that they knew... but chose not to follow up on is just mind-boggling.
It's probably not a "real" conspiracy. It's the often-observed effect that men do not take sexual assault seriously. I believe the figure is that more than 85% of reports of sexual assault are just ignored by the police. Or if they can't, you get cases like Brock Turner who get a slap on the wrist for committing a violent felony that destroyed the victim's life forever. Or there was a case near me where a man raped his daughters for years and the male judge give this long speech about he was such a good man and refused to sentence him even though the jury found him very guilty.
Respectfully, this may be because you are not a woman. Images of women have always been more manipulative than images of men, I think. We are framed a certain way and then told we must behave that way, or we are bad and wrong if we do not. Or vice versa.
And I do believe that photos influence us mightily, though subliminally. That's why so many just don't process the emotions or conclusions they prompt within us. I think of what we learned about subliminal images in advertising when I was in high school. It caused me to always take visual promotion with a grain of salt.
Always glad to see your posts, Mark. Have a good day.
Thank you, Azza, for your observations. I think your questions are important and warrant further reflection.
I've often noticed that coverage of "white collar criminals" of various kinds, usually but not always male, do often seem to picture the perps or alleged perps more in "power mode" than not. Of course, I imagine images of these folks doing nefarious deeds aren't all that easy to come by, but to your very valid point, illustrating/endorsing the power differential between these perps and the survivors verges on a kind of propaganda. (Perhaps it would be editorially fairer to both sides just to use cropped head shots as a means of providing a more even-handed presentation -- but I sincerely doubt that will ever happen.)
I also find myself wondering exactly why many of these pictures were taken. Who was holding that camera? Was the photographer being paid to capture these images? Why was the event or the moment being memorialized? For whose album or collection or files?
I find that photo of the erstwhile prince and the teen-aged Virginia Guiffre just heartbreaking -- not only because of the age difference, but also because the difference between his formal and expensive-looking attire and her casual, revealing, slightly cheesy clothing highlights the vast differences in their class backgrounds and resources in a way that renders her so seemingly vulnerable and at-risk. "What is this very young girl doing at this kind of a party?" Is she there on her own? How, and why?
The normative assumption that the status and power of the well-resourced somehow "deserve" greater protection from public embarrassment than do the bodies and lives of young women (for whom the damages generally amount to much more than mere embarrassment), especially if they come from poor or working class backgrounds is infuriating.
Daaang, Azza, your questions cut sharp. I shrink from answering them. I'm ashamed that I didn't notice these things; we just lap up whatever the press sees fit to attach to the content we read. But the men especially... do they buy up the embarrassing photos? We already know that people like Donald Trump pay to silence their victims. It was astonishing watching Stormy Daniels testify at trial. it was astonishing seeing Michael Cohen go to prison for his boss. Maybe we can only handle a certain amount of truth.
Thank you for provoking more introspection than I had given this topic until now. Let us turn to the Bill Cosby trial next.
Add to that, who do people see in those photos, as in, do people in power or people who wear business suits for their work see their potential colleagues in these photos? If they can’t imagine themselves or the people they associate with engaging in Epstein’s network, then can they actually see that this happened? The level of denial from people in his circle, who attended his parties and visited his island and other locales and benefited from his connections has been reported on extensively. People could have known but didn’t, even when immersed. Something society depends on, or rather, something some people in society believe they need, crumbles if they see the truth. But, humanity won’t crumble because of the truth. And, the truth is, as many as there were who associated with Epstein, it was a tiny fraction of the whole of humanity. It’s a festering wound that requires debridement in order to heal.
Excellent questions and points. Class inequality has many, many consequences.
Spot on Michelle Jordan. The word "apostasy" (def. apostasy, - "defection" or "revolt"). It refers to leaving ones religious faith or principles. It perfectly describes the abandonment of morality or ethical behavior. Apostate behavior, specifically, refers to behavior engaged in by people who feel that they have a right to engage in behavior (mostly sexual behavior) others feel to be immoral (a sin) because they do not believe in religion. It is a way of justifying rape and it has been widely practiced throughout all of mankind's existence.
Many men (and a few women) feel they have a right to engage in apostatic behavior and, as a mater of fact many men actually are proud of this behavior to others without their consent, for they feel they have a right to do things (like beating up others), which is another form of apostatic behavior.
Please see Prince Andrew engaged in apostate rape with a woman (above). Apostatic behavior is widespread in varying degrees in men everywhere and is most prevalent in the movie industry who use apostatic behavior widely in their plot lines.
Top-rated by me. Extremely useful to this lifelong casual photographer.
Isn't Azza swell? I'm a number-one fan too. Really a great addition to the Contrarian's diverse beat.
These people are disgusting. 🤢 They know they are abusing these girls and young women. Yet they continue to do it anyway. That’s called apostasy and it’s sickening. The split screen says it all.
This was a profound essay that really caused me to consider the photos and how they "worked" the public image of predator and prey. It is all too common even or especially today to consider the girls were too suggestive or willing participants. Why is it so hard for society to believe the perpetrators over the prey? It seems like both sides are playing roles, one is dominant and shows themselves to their privileged status, and the others, yes smiling, are doing whatever it took to survive, and some didn't even do that in this sick world. It is our duty to speak for the powerless, to speak truth to power not just politically, but about private lives that wrecked other lives in their search for pleasure.
Consider the golden spoof statues that have appeared on the National Mall of Trump and Epstein. Those may be propaganda at its finest, though used to lampoon the reverence afforded--or once afforded--those men.
I really appreciate your insights. I believe I am very observant so your work is appealing to me. Thank you.
The AI-generated descriptions that I see when I hover my mouse over the photos is pretty bizarre. The last one says "Several images of a person doing CPR."
I disable everything AI on my computer. Just say no.
Depend on human beings' words or stated viewpoints NOT machine-generated words or viewpoints attributed to machines. It is "pretty bizarre" for me to write that machines have viewpoints!
I don't know if there is any way to "properly" show the victims. If you show them as groomed and sexualized children, all of the people who buy into rape culture will assume it was their fault somehow. And if you show them as figures in power suits, people lose sympathy. That has always been the "trap" the patriachy uses: it doesn't matter what women do since all choices are seen as wrong.
Who’s feet are on the table in the background of that last photo? My god. That image is so disturbing.