When paleontologist Riley Black learned that several scientists in her field had appeared in the Epstein files, she wasn’t remotely shocked.
The files have revealed the extent of the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s connections not only with powerful politicians and business leaders, but also hundreds of scientists, some of whom accepted funding from him long after his 2008 conviction on soliciting prostitution with a minor.
As the paleontology community reckons with the fallout of these revelations, women in the field say they are a symptom of a deeper misogyny and power imbalance in the field.
CBC spoke to several women in paleontology, both on and off the record, who describe navigating spaces where abuse and harassment are rampant, funding and fame are prioritized above all else and institutions protect established men at the top at the expense of younger women trying to build careers.
From my understanding, the pedophilia was used as a means, not the ends. They wanted to be influential, and trying to get socially awkward scientific leaders who probably didn’t have great relationships with the opposite sex was probably particularly effective.
They tried to create an exclusive “social elite” men’s club, using prostitution and pedophilia as their tools, and sure it’s an example of misogyny and power imbalance, but frankly, I still wouldn’t respect them if we flipped around the genders or evened them out. Science doesn’t have an Epstein problem, it has a misogyny and power imbalance problem.
Maybe it also has a pedophilia and prostitution problem, but the article doesn’t really explore that, it’s just guilt by association. Which, fair enough, it’s Epstein, but I doubt being as manipulative as they were that they tried to sell themselves the same to everybody.