There's one name we've been hearing over and over and over, this week – Prince Andrew. But what about Virginia Giuffre?
With the world focusing on the former Duke of York losing his titles (oh, what a shame, pass me the tiny violin etc), victims like Virginia are completely forgotten. In fact, I'd go as far as to say she was doomed from the start – because nobody ever really believes women (despite all the #believewomen hashtags; which are sadly about as pointless as #bekind).
Virginia, before her tragic suicide in April, had been trying to speak out for years about the horrors she'd experienced at the hands of the late paedophile and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who "sold" her to powerful men when she was just a teenager. She says Prince Andrew had sex with her when she was only 17 (and on two other occasions) and settled a sexual assault lawsuit against him in 2022. Prince Andrew, meanwhile, has always denied doing anything wrong.
Everywhere Virginia turned, she was made out to be a fame-hungry fantasist, an unhinged storyteller. Yet now, thanks to her posthumous memoir – published this week – we finally have Virginia's version of what really happened. And it is shocking.
She says Prince Andrew acted as though having sex with her in 2001 "was his birthright", which is particularly eye-opening when you think about how much of the public discussion this week has focused on whether or not he gets to keep his title of Prince (despite having the others stripped away)... because it, too, is his "birthright". As to whether parliament has the right to stop him calling himself a prince, well – that's another, more complicated story.
And now we also know there are sensational allegations that Andrew asked two people – one, a Met Police bodyguard; the other, one of Queen Elizabeth II's most senior aides – to "dig up dirt" on Giuffre, presumably to conduct a smear campaign against her. To make sure that, like so many other women, she wasn't believed.
I find myself growing extremely weary and disheartened when I think about how common it is not to believe women. It happens all the time on a micro level ("you were drunk/wearing a short skirt/led him on") and bleeds through to the biggest cases, too – even Gisèle Pelicot.
Nobody believed Gisèle, at first, either – even though she went to the doctor numerous times to complain about mysterious gynaecological and neurological ailments, before finding out that her husband had been drugging her and allowing 50 strangers to rape her for more than a decade.
At the trial that shocked the world, last year, some of the defence lawyers attempted to claim that Gisèle had been complicit in her abuse; that the acts caught on videotape had been "consensual". She was questioned about her sex life – asked if she was an exhibitionist or a swinger, or an alcoholic. She was asked why she didn't seem "angrier" with her husband of 50 years; why she hadn't "cried more" in court.
Virginia was angry; she cried. For years and years and years. The trouble is – nobody listened.
What do you think of the latest Royal scandal? Are you tired of it – or gripped? Do you think Prince Andrew deserves to lose his title and become Mr Andrew Windsor, effectively putting him into permanent exile? Or should he be granted leniency? I'd love to hear your opinions.
You can write to me at victoria.richards@independent.co.uk – or to my alter-ego, 'Dear Vix', at dearvix@independent.co.uk.
0 comentários:
Postar um comentário