• ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        Trafficking involves coercion. We’ve heard a lot about the minors, but not all Epstein’s connections, sexual or otherwise, were coerced: many were legally of age who were simply paid.

        By all accounts, Melania came to the US of her own free will and was an adult when she interacted with Epstein. There is no evidence she was ever coerced, nor that she was pimped. She’s never said she was, and no one has ever suggested that about her.

        And to drive the point home, she is most certainly acting out of her own free will now, and to the same end: selling her [name, title, access to power, story] for money.

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Yeah, same here. There was a video circulating before his first term (long before AI and deepfakes) where someone took apart an interview she did talking about “doing business” as a “model” and all the various ways her responses were common to the jargon of prostitution.

        It wasn’t just one thing, it was many things, even one part where she put her hand up to her mouth like she knew she should not have said something the way she did because it was an obvious pointer to sex work.

        If I can find it I’ll post it, but I haven’t seen it since 2015 or thereabouts.

          • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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            10 minutes ago

            It’s gone, or at least as far as I can tell. It would have come out roughly around the same time she sued the Daily Mail for the same kind of story and they retracted as well.

            It was not the only video or story of its kind, by far, and right now they’re ALL gone. Not just this video, but almost all first term or prior Melania interviews. There are only a handful of older Melania interviews still out there at all, at least via public search, and absolutely zero that involve the word escort, which this one had in the title. The most recent ones do look entertaining, though.

            The Trump administration has quietly put forth a great deal of effort toward scrubbing the public internet for anything they don’t want out there, so I’m not really surprised.

      • Eldritch@piefed.world
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        4 hours ago

        Not if you consume mainstream media. The oligarchs keep their employees muzzled when it comes to specific topics.

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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          4 hours ago

          I dated a girl before she Turned Pro. Decades later she filled me in on her short stint, and this one gem:

          • if she’s waiting for you, she’s a whore
          • if you’re waiting somewhere for her, she’s an escort or a call-girl.

          One of them has more rules, too.

          But I dunno.

          • Mantzy81@aussie.zone
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            3 hours ago

            A high-class whore is still a whore.

            No shade, and do what you want - grab that bag if that’s what you want, but there’s little difference between a street walker, a call girl, or a porn star. You’re still being paid for sex, simple as that. If it’s consensual, and nobody is being exploited then whatever.