The Audacity of E. Jean Carroll

[BeyondGeography]

Today she’s typically described as a former advice columnist — but that term doesn’t really do justice to E. Jean Carroll’s career pre-Donald Trump. Long before she was one of the longest-serving advice columnists in America, Ms. Carroll blazed trails as a gonzo-style journalist The Times once called “feminism’s answer to Hunter Thompson.”

She profiled Lyle Lovett and went camping with the notorious New York curmudgeon Fran Lebovitz for a cover story in Outside. She wrote a famous piece on Dan Rather for Esquire, appeared in the “Best American Crime Writing,” and was the first female contributing editor at Playboy — back when people really did read it for the articles.

…as I sat in court in Manhattan last week, watching Mr. Trump glare and mumble at the back of Ms. Carroll’s head — she sat two rows in front of him, pin straight in her chair, the first time she’s been near this man in nearly 30 years — I couldn’t stop thinking that this trial was also about something else: the value of a woman, long past middle age, who dared to claim she indeed still had value. Just how radical was it for Ms. Carroll, 80, to demand that she was worth something?

…When I talked to Deborah Tuerkheimer, a law professor at Northwestern whose book “Credible” examines why we disbelieve allegations of sexual abuse, she told me that Mr. Trump’s team was “trying to show that she was already past her prime,” that she had “withered on the vine and so whatever was left of her wasn’t enough to warrant a hefty damage award.” She also told me there is no precedent for a case like Ms. Carroll’s, in part because it is so unusual for a woman her age to come forward. Part of that has to do with stigma (people are deeply uncomfortable with the combination of older women and sexual assault, and Ms. Carroll was 52 when the assault took place) and also with statutes of limitations. But it makes her “all the more radical,” Ms. Tuerkheimer said — an 80-year-old woman proclaiming she wasn’t done yet, that her reputation was worth something and that she was owed money from the person who’d trashed it.

More at gift link https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/opinion/e-jean-carroll-audacity-donald-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

[Jarqui]

1. I was in a little communication with her lawyer

I sent them something - trying to help.

After the jury decision, I sent her a short note that included this statement

"It is people like you and EJ Carroll that make America great - not Trump."

[BeyondGeography]

2. Perfect

[et tu]

3. one has to stand up to be counted

for women it is hard because of our society [era anyone?],
but when one can if possible, do stand- ms. carroll 'towers'
for all women.

[AllaN01Bear]

4. i would love to see trump tower renamed carroll towers and kick out the russians , chinese and north koreans and

let homeless ppl live there .

[TSExile]

5. Ms. Carroll is a HERO!!!

Every survivor owes you a debt of gratitude.

[malaise]

6. Must Read

Love you EJean

Rec

[Martin68]

7. Excellent profile. Thanks for sharing. I already had great respect for Carroll, but this information raises her even

higher in my estimation and explains a great deal about the significance of this fine woman and her suit.

[spanone]

8. K&R

[jfz9580m]

9. I rarely care much for any public figures but

She is the exception.

She sounds funny, cool and tough:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/politics/jean-carroll-trump-sexual-assault.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/nyregion/carroll-trump-rape-trial.html


There is nothing misogynists of a type like more than to take down a woman with sexual harassment or disrespect for daring to make raunchy jokes or live outside the purdah..There is always a distinct “she was definitely asking for it” vibe when men attack women of her specific type (aka funny and tough)..because they can count on a subset of other people piling on and saying “well look at the way she talks..what can she expect?”.

She cracks raunchy jokes or makes lewd remarks, she swears, she drinks..who is she to object to harassment? It is the misogynistic variant on the more common “she should not be wearing that if she doesn’t want unwanted attention”. I am very familiar with that line of sexist and backward thinking myself.

I love her. Go Jean! The anti-victim..

I hope Vagina T Fireball is the type of cat that will take an eye out of any creep who might try to attack her for daring to stand up to Trump. After his little “jokes” about assassination and presidential immunity I thought of her.

Anything a woman does (from posting on the net to swearing to raunchy jokes) is fair game for attack ..indeed having any sense of humor or fun at all is basically contraband in our increasingly regressive global society..really any behavior short of “hard work” and the obligatory 2 -10 kids is “asking for maltreatment”.

And I can say from personal experience that pretty much all of society looks on childfree women with contempt.

I am not surprised that Trump called her a “nutcase”.

People go out of their way to make childfree women miserable and then bullshit about how such women have “mental health issues”. It is sickening.

There was a time in a my life where I almost finally got browbeaten into thinking of myself as mentally not that well out of sheer tiredness. But now I know that not only am I not mentally ill, I never was unwell. I just was unfortunate enough to end up in the segments of society that do really hate women and call women crazy. My mental health is now and always was as fine as can be expected of any gaslighted and embattled woman surrounded by creepy men (not to mention the types of women who support them). The place I live is horrible-I am halfway around the world from your nazi rapist, but no shortage of male creeps where I live. The last 12 years were horrible, but I made it. I take full responsibility for my own actions always and defy creeps.

I like how spunky E Jean is. Attagirl..my mom would have loved her.

This is a society that wants women to be weak, depressive and so on. Though The New Atlantis is conservative, I did agree with this:

https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/all-pathology-all-the-time

I am not anti psychiatry, but I do think the tendency to call childfree women who know their own minds “crazy” has to be questioned. And by medical professionals above all.