What Do Sex Traffickers (Like Jeffrey Epstein) and Mass Shooters Have in Common? And Why Should We Care?

7 min readFeb 16, 2023

by I. J. Weinstock, author of OUR SECRET SEX LIFE: The Key to Humanity’s Destiny

Jeffrey Epstein (left) and a partial “rogue’s gallery” of mass shooters

America keeps reeling from mass shootings and sex scandals.

In response, political pundits, OpEd columnists, and government officials blame various causes: America has a racist problem, an immigration problem, a mental health problem, a hate problem, a gun problem, etc. But these “problems” are symptoms of a much more fundamental problem hidden in plain sight.

America has a man problem that’s ultimately a sex problem!

Unleashed by tectonic shifts in our society, it’s fueling the violence and mayhem of mass shooters as well as predatory sex traffickers like Jeffrey Epstein. Both threaten society, but in different ways.

Mass shooters rip the fabric of society apart from the bottom, while sex traffickers like Epstein corrupt it from the top. We need to understand the sexual undercurrents driving these societal threats if we hope to address them.

Mass-Shooters

Let’s start with mass shooters. Beneath whatever “ism” they profess to be fighting for, they’re usually alienated loners and often sexually frustrated misogynists. In their most extreme form, they identify (like the 2018 Toronto van shooter) as incels — shorthand for “involuntary celibates.” These young men blame women for their loneliness and want to punish females for rejecting them and denying them their right to sex.

Paradoxically, our patriarchal civilization has built a technological world in which a man’s superior strength — which for millennia justified his status as protector, provider, and leader — is no longer needed. For many men, the simultaneous loss of jobs and self-respect, combined with women’s cultural, political, and financial rise, has been a perfect storm that’s deprived them of their sexual “fix.”

No longer needing a man for economic security, women are much more selective about their sexual partners. Increasingly, men feel robbed not only of their social status and privilege but of what was once easy access to sex. Even if a man has a mate, he has to negotiate. Rarely does he get all he wants the way he wants it.

Feeling deprived, these men yearn for a time, not so long ago, when sex was a man’s “right” and a woman’s “duty.” They’re frustrated, angry, and also deeply humiliated and ashamed.

But this shame can’t be spoken of because acknowledging it reveals their impotence. So they blame Mexican immigrants and scapegoat Muslim terrorists. In the name of being “pro-life,” they limit women’s reproductive freedom yet resist any attempt to restrict lethal guns. Though they rail at all they’ve lost (jobs, status, privilege), the ultimate loss, the shameful one they can’t admit to, is their unfettered access to sex.

Perhaps, that’s why many of them voted for a rich, super-model-marrying, pussy-grabbing, I-can-do-anything-to-women bully who promised to Make America Great Again! Subliminally, what they may have heard him promise was to Get America Laid Again!

This toxic and explosive situation is going to get worse before it gets better. As more women become empowered, more men will feel deprived of their sexual “fix.” Their frustration and anger can be weaponized into violent sexual terrorism, though it will usually be cloaked in their “man-ifestos” as some heroic act in a holy culture war. This is a ticking time bomb.

Sex-Traffickers

Donald Trump, like many rich and powerful men, socialized with Jeffrey Epstein for years.

Sex traffickers are obviously motivated by sex, but for them (unlike mass shooters) it’s not about sexual unavailability, it’s about sexual inadequacy.

The shocking and scandalous Jeffrey Epstein saga illustrates the sexual fear that drives men of influence and means to seek illicit sex with underage girls.

Epstein was a monstrous predator, pedophile, and trafficker. His own perverse need probably seeded his trafficking operation. He saw how this sort of taboo sex could be packaged as both a libido enhancer-cum-Viagra and perverse “status symbol.” He made a fortune and built an illicit empire by providing this illegal “drug” to a secret network of rich and powerful men to treat their sexual inadequacy.

As women increasingly exercise their sexual agency and seek sexual fulfillment, sex has become increasingly demanding, intimidating, and even threatening, especially for powerful men with fragile egos.

In contrast to a sexually empowered woman who has sampled a variety of men, an underage girl is the closest thing to a “virgin.” Since she can’t compare him with other men, she can’t find him lacking. Men who desire sex with underage girls are desperately afraid.

Of what?

It’s said that what women fear most about men is being killed. But what men fear most about women is being laughed at.

A “virginal” underage, almost-woman is a safe haven for a man who is anxious about his sexuality. She won’t make comparisons or demands. Desiring sex with underage girls reflects not only a man’s inadequacy but also his cowardice. Sex with teenagers who are not yet fully grown women provides insecure men with a charade of dominance and conquest. They can experience sexual pleasure without their masculinity or even their humanity being called into question.

Perversion and criminality aside, why would a man want to have sex with an underage girl? She can’t bring the depth of either sexual or life experience, much less artistry, to a sexual encounter.

So it’s not the sex these men are after. Beyond the illusion of dominance, perhaps it’s also the rarified reflection of a forbidden and transgressive “status symbol” that only those with wealth and power can buy. Like big-game hunting, it’s a way to prop up their fragile egos with the illusion of power, bravery, and sexual competence. Meanwhile, though they won’t admit it, these men are probably terrified of making love with a sexually empowered woman.

Why Should We Care?

Mass shooters are often poor (losers in the economic game) who are unable to create or sustain a sexual relationship (losers in the “mating game,” too). The more empowered women become, the more havoc these sexually frustrated “losers” will wreak.

The consumers of sex trafficking are usually the rich and powerful (winners), who nevertheless feel inadequate. Unlike mass shooters, these “winners” have easy access to women. But they’re never sure why women are with them. They must constantly be wondering if it’s just for their wealth and power, which may be an aphrodisiac for some women but ultimately isn’t satisfying for these men.

So these “winners” buy themselves this expensive, transgressive, taboo “tonic” of sex with an underage girl. They buy underage sex as protection, like a condom, but for their fragile egos as a guarantee they won’t be laughed at.

In this fundamental way, mass shooters and sex traffickers are alike — mass shooters can’t obtain sex while consumers of sex trafficking fear sex. And both threaten society but in different ways.

As outsiders, mass shooters rip the fabric of society apart, while sex traffickers like Epstein corrupt it from within. The sexually-fueled terrorism of mass shooters — beyond the horrific deaths and injuries they cause — generates fear and chaos. The casualties can be counted, but the damaging aftershocks that ripple through society are incalculable.

The threat posed by sex trafficking is also incalculable. Beyond the heinous sex crimes committed against the underage victims, the “honey traps” that sex trafficking creates can be leveraged by political and economic interests to compromise the powerful and influential.

How many men of the ruling class have been blackmailed? (Just look at how Prince Andrew and the Royal Family have been ensnared or how the allegations against politicians like Trump, Gaetz, et al give us pause.) What hidden interests have pulled strings behind-the-scenes of this sprawling web of secrecy and “sextortion,” influencing our politics, our laws, our foreign affairs, and even our history?

Whether they’re “winners” or “losers,” these men are monstrous. Beyond their immediate victims, they threaten our society from within and without, from the top and the bottom.

It’s time to engage in an adult conversation about sex that doesn’t titillate but educates and elevates so we can address these threats to our society.

_____________

I. J. Weinstock is the author of THE SECRET SEX LIFE OF ANGELS series — an epic quest exploring the mystery that we call “sex.” His recent nonfiction book, OUR SECRET SEX LIFE: The Key to Humanity’s Destiny, is a radical re-examination of sex and society.