untouchable
Hello! This is my very first paying-subscriber post, and that feels WILD. I am so grateful and happy that you are here, reading this. Thank you.
This week, some incredibly startling research was published which suggests that domestic abuse victims are more likely to kill themselves than be killed by their partners. We know that two women a week are murdered by their current or former partner; that gives some indication of the significance of this new(ish) thinking.
Sitting down to write about this on the day Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was arrested - and released - led to a collision of thoughts, but which ultimately boiled down to the same thing: (some) men’s belief in being untouchable (and the countless institutions that validate that belief).
Also in paid-for posts: a bumper crop of links to the news that I can’t get out of my head, as well as all the things I’ve been reading, watching and listening to.
On with the show
***I wrote this before Andrew was released.
As the news broke that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had been arrested, I could feel the frenzy thrumming off social media, the internet abuzz with chatter and excitement. It is big news - inconceivable to many not so long ago. If found guilty of misconduct in public office, he could face life imprisonment. At the time of writing, Andrew has yet to be charged.
Currently, only one person is serving a sentence for child sex trafficking in relation to Epstein, and that person is a woman. I’m not suggesting that Maxwell should be anywhere other than precisely where she is, but I don’t think it’s a fact we should ignore. Another fact we can’t ignore is that while Andrew’s arrest unquestionably feels significant, the reason for his arrest is the alleged crime of leaking government information. If the Epstein files have revealed anything, it’s how, in many ways, the old levers of power are robust as ever.
And yet, despite this depressing reality, there is a message in the fall of Andrew that is worth taking a minute to consider, and suggests that, perhaps, just maybe, those levers aren’t operating quite as they once did.
Very clearly, the men who conspired with Epstein believed they were untouchable. They were rich enough, powerful enough, connected enough. Richard Branson even wrote the word ‘harem’ in an email. But if Andrew, a man of such utter privilege, could find himself arrested, it must sound some sort of warning shot. That iron-clad belief that some men are untouchable, no matter what they’ve done, has, slightly but significantly, been cast into doubt - at least for today.
Most men are not princes or very wealthy or very connected, but some men, especially men who cause harm to women and girls, also think they are untouchable. They too feel powerful over their victims. They, too, have an iron-clad belief that they can get away with the heinous abuse they perpetrate, because, like the very privileged, there are enough institutions around them that, at best, fail to notice and at worst, aid and abet. As we’ve watched countless famous men let off the hook for domestic abuse, sexual assault or rape over the years, I’ve often wondered how these high-profile stories must strengthen the resolve of so many. The message is loud and clear: untouchable.
Buried in the news this week was perhaps the most chilling example of the belief in untouchability. New research shows experts now think domestic violence victims are more likely to take their own lives than be killed by their partners.
According to the Guardian:
“Research by a suicide prevention programme in Kent found that about a third of all suspected suicides in the region between 2018 and 2024 were affected by domestic abuse.
If the numbers in Kent reflect the national picture, it could mean as many as 1,500 victims of domestic abuse are taking their own lives every year – up to 15 times as many as previously thought”.
