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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

Ghislaine Maxwell

164 replies

RadandMad · 04/07/2020 15:57

Not GC, but I'd be interested to hear what you think motivated GM to do the stuff she did. I mean she's rich, beautiful, Oxbridge educated, so what on earth did Epstein have to offer her? If she was simply in love with him, how did that work given he evidently preferred young girls to her. I'm intrigued by the psychology at work here.

OP posts:
OldeMagick · 04/07/2020 16:03

Not psychology - money

Mrsjayy · 04/07/2020 16:09

Money and status is imo what motivated her she thought herself above the children and young women she groomed.

LouHotel · 04/07/2020 16:10

I think that in social circles that are overwhelmingly wealthy then power and control will ultimately be a bigger motivator.

Original poster
RadandMad · 04/07/2020 16:12

Isn't she loaded on her own account, though? I didn't think she needed Epstein's money, and I think she probably had far more social status than him.

OP posts:
MonsteraCheeseplant · 04/07/2020 16:12

I can never understand the women that facilitate sex abuse for men. When I we watching the documentary about this I did wonder why she wasn't arrested sooner.

AllWashedOut · 04/07/2020 16:12

She was groomed by her own terrible father to please men. With GM you are looking at a deeply traumatised individual. This does not excuse her acts however.

Mrsjayy · 04/07/2020 16:14

No I don't think she was as "loaded" as she thought she deserved

SerenityNowwwww · 04/07/2020 16:14

Flashy lifestyle, parties, movie stars.... I don’t know if she had money of her own - dad embezzled didn't he? I read that Epstein said he would look after her financially.

Original poster
RadandMad · 04/07/2020 16:16

@AllWashedOut

She was groomed by her own terrible father to please men. With GM you are looking at a deeply traumatised individual. This does not excuse her acts however.
No, not excusing her at all. Just perplexed as to what she was getting out of that situation. Maybe I'm sexist, in that I find it difficult to believe women can be perverts and paedophiles in the same way men can.
OP posts:
Floisme · 04/07/2020 16:16

I have no idea and quite honestly all my interest and concerns are for the young girls who were abused. I hope they get justice.

TornadoOfSouls · 04/07/2020 16:16

A lot of the time women do things for male approval and to feel superior to other women. They often don’t realise this themselves, IMO. I think also just seeing herself, Epstein etc as superior in general.

Goosefoot · 04/07/2020 16:16

I think someone who does stuff like that is missing some sort of empathetic ability or moral centre. That could easily come from awful trauma but some seem to be just born that way.

Some people don't seem to care about anyone else, or don't really think of other people as real.

Sexual motivation might be part of it too, or money as people said.

TornadoOfSouls · 04/07/2020 16:18

Floisme is right of course. I felt relieved to read that GM had been arrested - I hope the victims get justice, that is indeed what matters here.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 04/07/2020 16:19

I read something that said she had an 80k per year trust fund after her father died, which is not enough(!) to live the billionaire lifestyle she was used to.
Also: her upbringing was clearly abusive.
I think if the allegations are true she probably enjoyed abusing on her own account rather than just doing it for Epstein though.

bringbacksideburns · 04/07/2020 16:20

It sounds like she got a kick out of organizing it for him and also being involved with the girls herself.

Maybe Power was the motivation. It can't all be down to money as she'd been surrounded by it all her life and I'm sure had many rich friends.

Bluebell1995 · 04/07/2020 16:22

I was wondering about her motivations. Reading on Wikipedia , her brother was in a serious accident a few days before she was born and was in a coma for years before he died.

I wonder how much that would have affected her very early years. She was also an anorexic toddler.

Not excusing her at all, but obviously trauma in childhood has long term ramifications in some people.

AllWashedOut · 04/07/2020 16:24

OP, because it is a toxic relationship dynamic she knows from so long ago it has become who she is. In the old abuser/abused dynamic, each seeks out the other in a codependency. It's a similar dynamic here. GM learned from a young age that to be truly loved she has to service the sexual needs of men. This will feel 'normal' to her.

merrymouse · 04/07/2020 16:27

Status? Power? Personality disorder?

Its difficult to understand why anyone had anything to do with him (except Prince Andrew who isn't very bright and needed money), unless they were all being blackmailed. He doesn't seem to have been particularly charming, and his houses just seem odd.

nauticant · 04/07/2020 16:30

I don't have a deep analysis but one interesting thing is that she came from a place of vast wealth, billions in family money, but decades ago fell to relative poverty of maybe 10 or 20 million. That's nothing in the circles in which she moves.

I think part of this was her putting herself in a position where she could access the lifestyle that she'd had, but had lost, and could no longer afford.

transdimensional · 04/07/2020 16:31

It's got to f you up if you're raised by someone like Robert Maxwell. Wikipedia has some interesting details - he once said he didn't like male assistants, he preferred female ones because they have less individuality! He interviewed President Ceausescu of Romania and asked him why the Romanian people loved him so much. He is also suspected of having been a spy for one or more foreign intelligence services. He may have been responsible for Mordechai Vanunu (the Israel nuclear arms whistleblower) getting kidnapped by Mossad.
Harold Wilson nicknamed him "the bouncing Czech".

Al1Langdownthecleghole · 04/07/2020 16:31

She was groomed by her own terrible father to please men. With GM you are looking at a deeply traumatised individual. This does not excuse her acts however.

This. It doesn't excuse her actions, but she is someone who was seriously fucked up as a child. seeing her described as anorexic as a toddler is worrying.

ladyslattern · 04/07/2020 16:40

I wonder if she is a psychopath. Brother accident/coma days before she was born. Unlikely to have had a secure attachment in first 2 years. Anorexic as a toddler. Mother writes that Robert would rant at/harangue children and reduce them to a pulp - maybe she escaped to dissociative state. Then spoilt by misogynistic father, known to be the favourite with who she had what seems to be a quite weird relationship.

Neighbours87 · 04/07/2020 16:41

I think her background explains a lot growing up privledged and connected with a powerful father with no moral compass and then losing all the money. Epstein offered her all the power and money she lost she also could be a sociopath completely lacking in empathy

RedToothBrush · 04/07/2020 16:44

@AllWashedOut

She was groomed by her own terrible father to please men. With GM you are looking at a deeply traumatised individual. This does not excuse her acts however.
From her wiki

Maxwell had a close relationship with her father and was widely credited with being her father's favourite child. The Times reported that Robert Maxwell did not permit Ghislaine to bring her boyfriends home or to be seen with them publicly, after she started attending Oxford University.

It sounds like she probably didn't know what was 'normal'.

She first met Epstein in the early 1990s and started a relationship with him no long after her father died.

No excuses here, but certainly seem to be more questions here than answers about the 'why' and 'what' over her role.

Thelnebriati · 04/07/2020 16:44

MonsteraCheeseplant
I can never understand the women that facilitate sex abuse for men.

Thats because you don't get the allure of 'power over' someone else and don't get your jollies from abuse.
To most of us the ability to lord it over other people or cause active harm it isn't attractive, its disgusting. I cant imagine what it would take to warp me into that state.