The unresolved trauma stemming from the Jeffrey Epstein case represents a societal timebomb, according to prominent activist and playwright V, formerly known as Eve Ensler. In a powerful personal account, she details how the continued lack of accountability for powerful abusers perpetuates a cycle of suffering for millions of sexual violence survivors.
The Personal is Political: A Corporeal Attack
V describes experiencing a severe physical and emotional reaction after finishing Nobody's Girl, the harrowing memoir by Virginia Giuffre. This response, which included uncontrollable shaking and a profound sense of dread, mirrored feelings from her own childhood abuse. She connects this directly to the patterns in Giuffre's story: being raped by her father, his friend, and then by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, before being trafficked to other powerful men.
The article condemns the persistent public misunderstanding of why victims don't simply leave abusive situations. V explains that rape destroys self-love and self-agency, forcing a separation from one's own body and creating a state of being a walking ghost. This brokenness, she argues, is something predators like Epstein and Maxwell actively sought out and exploited in young women.
A Scaffolding of Rape and Systemic Failure
V places the Epstein case within a broader, damning context. She describes living in a world, and specifically in America, that is caught in a childhood sexual abuse seizure. Despite survivors bravely coming forward, they are often met with gaslighting, threats, and disbelief. She points to a system that has spent years protecting an international ring of powerful men, who are either rapists, paedophiles, or complicit through their associations.
Even after 66 years and extensive therapy, V states that the trauma of rape lives on in her cells, as it does for Giuffre and for a billion women survivors worldwide. She reframes conditions like PTSD not as insanity, but as a rational response to a reality where there is no safety, accountability, or justice.
The Alchemized Rage of Millions
In a final, urgent plea, V attempts to explain the profound and lasting damage of rape. She defines it as a betrayal, invasion and theft that murders the victim's life force. Like plutonium, it lodges itself forever in the body's chemistry, destroying trust, self-esteem, and the ability to be intimate.
She highlights that sex trafficking is a $200bn international industry, a rampant abuse supported by what she calls a scaffolding of rape. Referencing Virginia Giuffre's own words about the emotional timebomb of trauma that ultimately took her life, V issues a stark warning.
There is another, larger timebomb set to explode: the alchemized rage of millions of survivors. This rage will be directed outward if there is no accountability or justice for the Epstein victims. It represents the breaking point for those who can no longer live with this torturous injustice.
V is the founder of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222.
