Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre... Final Thoughts

 Part II - Prisoner 

If you feel like letting go (hold on) If you think you’ve had too much Of this life, well hang on —“Everybody Hurts,” R.E.M.

I finished this 3-Part devastating Memoir last night! I was unsure how to proceed and finally decided that I would strongly recommend you read this book, if you care about young and older women's treatment in today's world. Over and over, I was appalled as how Jenna was treated by tabloid news representatives, by those who had actually abused her, as they tried to lie their way out of her accusations... But most of all, as I am prone to do, I connected two major paragraphs in the book...

I felt rage. How entitled and selfish do you have to be to continue hounding and threatening the very victims you’ve hurt before? It drove me crazy to think these people could potentially get away with silencing me for good. When someone on Twitter speculated that the FBI might kill me “to protect the ultrarich and well connected,” I felt the need to respond. If I died suddenly, I tweeted, no one should believe that it was an accident. “I am making it publicly known that in no way, shape, or form am I suicidal,” I typed hastily but resolutely (making several spelling and grammatical errors that I’ve corrected here). “I have made this known to my therapist and GP—If something happens to me—for the sake of my family, do not let this go away and help me to protect them. Too many evil people want to see me quieted.”

~

Donald Trump was now president, and in early 2017 he nominated Alexander Acosta—the former federal prosecutor based in Miami who had approved Epstein’s shameful, secretive nonprosecution agreement—to be secretary of labor. Acosta was confirmed in April 2017.

~

“I don’t want to talk to you,” the woman said. “Jeffrey’s dead, and you helped kill him.” That pissed me off. “I’m not here about what Jeffrey’s done,” I said. “I’m here about what you’ve done.” “I’m calling security,” she said, and soon, we were being escorted off the property.

~

“Ghislaine, twenty-two years ago, in the summer of 2000 you spotted me at the Mar-a-Lago Hotel in Florida and you made a choice. You chose to follow me and procure me for Jeffrey Epstein. Just hours later, you and he abused me together for the first time. “Together, you damaged me physically, mentally, sexually and emotionally. Together, you did unspeakable things that still have a corrosive impact on me to this day. I want to be clear about one thing: without question, Jeffrey Epstein was a terrible pedophile. But I never would have met Jeffrey Epstein if not for you. For me, and for so many others, you opened the door to hell. And then, Ghislaine, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, you used your femininity to betray us, and you led us all through it.”

The above was written when she was told she could not participate in Maxwell's trial, because it would be "too disruptive..." (Everybody knew her name...) This statement was instead read at the trial as other victims testified... 

~

There are other men whom I was trafficked to who have threatened me in another way: by asserting that they will use litigation to bankrupt me. One of those men’s names has come up repeatedly in various court filings, and in response, he has told my lawyers that if I talk about him publicly, he will employ his vast resources to keep me in court for the rest of my life. While I have named him in sworn depositions and identified him to the FBI, I fear that if I do so again here, my family will bear the emotional and financial brunt of that decision. I have the same fears about another man whom I was forced to have sex with many times—a man whom I also saw having sexual contact with Epstein himself. I would love to identify him here. But this man is very wealthy and very powerful, and I fear that he, too, might engage me in expensive, life-ruining litigation. I do not make this decision to hold back lightly. Part of me wants to shout from the highest rooftop the names of every man who ever used me for sex. Some readers will question my reluctance to name many of my abusers. If I am, indeed, a fighter for justice, why have I not called them out? My answer is simple: Because while I have been a daughter, a prisoner, a survivor, and a warrior, my most important role is that of a mother. First and foremost, I am a parent, and I won’t put my family at risk if I can help it. Maybe in the future I will be ready to talk about these men. But not now.

~~~

As I read, the book moves forward as she tells her story... But the faltering begins, when she begins to learn that those with whom she shared, would backstab her later, often coming back for more "dirt" than she was willing to give or to insinuate that she was not telling the whole story--that she was getting rich and famous...et.al., I recognized a brave woman that was willing to stand up and be brave... she shares of interaction online and about her desire and action to help not only those who were abused by Epstein, but the many others--she includes many recent events that have occurred after the Me-Too movement began and how it moved across the country like a fire of those who had been abused in some way... I joined that group...

At one point I was also going to write a memoir, with the title, A Single Christian Woman: Is Sex All That? As you know, I quickly abandoned that once I started paying attention to the news in 2015 and saw just how even a president can treat women who got in his way, or even just didn't support him... Since then I've read many fictional and nonfiction books describing what can and has been done to women... And when I read the story of Tamar, the daughter of King David during early times, I learned...and began to wonder... have we not learned anything since the death of Jesus for us?

Instead, not only rape, but ongoing abuse, trafficking for sex, and so much more is done to today's girls and women... A major book became available years ago about the grooming of our teenagers... Nothing significant has occurred. Indeed during the last decade we learned over and over about the rich and famous using out children for sexual favors... And, today, the leader of the House has sent everybody home, rather than having to deal with a request to release the huge volume of documentation that was accumulated on the Epstein case... Simply because Trump and Epstein were friends for ten years...

So, let's take a final look at the reality of the massive  misogyny that began in the "BC" years--the days of harems, of the theft of daughters from citizens to become a member of the King's courts... Until today.

Of course, there were times of women speaking out to gain the right to vote, to gain equal pay for equal work... Little things like that... Sarcasm intended...

But, still, when it comes to sexual abuse, the ratio of women to men has always been extremely different. Why is that? Why is it when one young girl out of hundreds, possibly thousands of teenagers is chosen, escaped, finally found love, that she is hounded not only by those who had abused her, but those who are afraid of her desire to help solve this major problem?

Could it be that the young boys were never taught to actually respect women--their mothers, their sisters, and later their children? Perhaps because they read that King David did nothing when one of his children was raped, and another, a brother, committed murder in retribution... We began to question what our lives would have been like in biblical times...

Or is it just those who chose power over others, in whatever form, in order to achieve their own personal goals of greed which their power had permitted?

Jenna, yes, did write of her time when she thought it would be better for her family if she was gone... She did try suicide... But remember, by that time, there were trucks driving up to their home, sitting in a menacing manner... There were break-ins as well... There were trolls on social media who blamed her or thought she did it for the money, the glamor of her abuser's attention... Get real. No young virgin has ever thought about selling her body for the honor of being abused night after night, of being trafficked to men who were not even named--all they did was rape her... And sometimes even physically attack her bodily... 

What I know is that, after reading her book and what I might have written about my own abuse, it was minor in comparison of what this young woman went through... Yet, she tried throughout her life, to forgive those family members who participated in her early abuse that was even before her teen years...

I have to ask about Jenna... Did she die just as we all believe that Epstein died? Was she murdered? She goes from claiming early that she would not ever commit suicide due to her experiences... Yet, by the end of her book, she had changed it to admit that there were a number of powerful people so influential that she was afraid to even reveal their names... What happened between the first firm statement of her not being the type to commit suicide... To, by the interaction with news reporters, lawyers representing her as the victim, against the lawyers of those powerful men who she knew were so powerful that she became more afraid for her husband and three children, than for herself... Will these possibilities ever be considered further, I doubt it... 

Right now, the victims, which included Jenna have come together as a sisterhood, working individually and in a group to ensure that what Epstein and Maxwell did to them would be made public... And, right now, the Speaker of the House has sent the members of Congress home for months...for fear that the ultimate ability to vote on the release of the Epstein files, when a new member is sworn in, which he has delayed purposely, and required to proceed with the vote...

We all know that there is only one man who wants the files to never be released... The man who controls the Speaker and everybody else he brought with him...

I really wish I could understand how so many of those who were Christians suddenly bowed down to a man who is now tearing the nation and much of the world apart... What I do know is that Jenna was a woman who I admire, who felt strongly about helping others who had gone through the years of turmoil she had experienced in her life... 

And why powerful men choose to believe that they have the right to do anything they want with the bodies of females... There is no mention of God being a part of her life, before she met Robbie... She began to learn about life--love--when she was 19...

Experts say that children learn by the age of four what they will learn from their parents...

Except if the love learned becomes a nightmare of pain and confusion... That child has also learned...

I was thrilled that Jenna did finally learn about love... And when she had a daughter, especially, that she was even more convinced that she had to work to change this world... I pray that her death will not be in vain...

GABixlerReviews 

If you’ve read this far, I hope my story has moved you—to seek ways to free yourself from a bad situation, say, to stand up for someone else in need, or to simply reframe how you judge victims of sexual abuse. Each one of us can make positive change. I truly believe that. I hope for a world in which predators are punished, not protected; victims are treated with compassion, not shamed; and powerful people face the same consequences as anyone else. I yearn, too, for a world in which perpetrators face more shame than their victims do and where anyone who’s been trafficked can confront their abusers when they are ready, no matter how much time has passed. We don’t live in this world yet—I mean, seriously: Where are those videotapes the FBI confiscated from Epstein’s houses? And why haven’t they led to the prosecution of any more abusers?—but I believe we could someday. Imagining it is the first step. In my mind, I hold a picture of a girl reaching out for help and easily finding it. I picture a woman, too, who—having come to terms with her childhood pain—feels that it’s within her power to take action against those who hurt her. If this book moves us even an inch closer to a reality like that—if it helps just one person—I will have achieved my goal.

Another Victim...