It is a really weird thing to say, and you can still find a lot of articles that use the term “underage women”. But, it’s not like articles that use that term are necessarily trying to apologize for Epstein or minimize what happened.
I think the problem is that they want to use the term “underage” because they want to clarify that what happened wasn’t legal. The proper term for an “underage woman” is a “girl”. But, unfortunately, “girl” is also used with adult women. So, saying “Trump had sex with some of the girls” doesn’t really clarify what happened. And, the term “underage girls” is also bad. That’s the kind of language you might find from someone like Megyn Kelly trying to draw a distinction between sex with an 8 year old vs. sex with a 15 year old.
But, it’s not like articles that use that term are necessarily trying to apologize for Epstein or minimize what happened.
That’s a subjective interpretation, and a valid one, I just disagree with it.
Whether or not they’re “trying” to is even sort of irrelevant - it does minimize it. My opinion is that they know very well that that language minimizes it.
I’m sure I can find you a bunch of articles where there’s no sign they’re trying to minimize what happened but they happen to use that term. I just think English is tricky. What term do you think they should be using?
That doesn’t work when the details are fuzzy, for example, this paragraph:
House Democrats Wednesday released a small batch of emails that appear to suggest President Donald Trump knew more about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has acknowledged.
You couldn’t say “Trump knew more about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of girls 11-14 than he has acknowledged”. That suggests that the emails that were released referenced those specific ages, which they don’t.
You couldn’t say “Trump knew more about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of girls 11-14 than he has acknowledged”.
You could say emails suggest Trump knew more about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of girls 11-14 than he has acknowledged". You sure could. You sure should! It’s the truth! It’s recorded in many places, witnessed by many people!
It is a really weird thing to say, and you can still find a lot of articles that use the term “underage women”. But, it’s not like articles that use that term are necessarily trying to apologize for Epstein or minimize what happened.
I think the problem is that they want to use the term “underage” because they want to clarify that what happened wasn’t legal. The proper term for an “underage woman” is a “girl”. But, unfortunately, “girl” is also used with adult women. So, saying “Trump had sex with some of the girls” doesn’t really clarify what happened. And, the term “underage girls” is also bad. That’s the kind of language you might find from someone like Megyn Kelly trying to draw a distinction between sex with an 8 year old vs. sex with a 15 year old.
That’s a subjective interpretation, and a valid one, I just disagree with it.
Whether or not they’re “trying” to is even sort of irrelevant - it does minimize it. My opinion is that they know very well that that language minimizes it.
I’m sure I can find you a bunch of articles where there’s no sign they’re trying to minimize what happened but they happen to use that term. I just think English is tricky. What term do you think they should be using?
It depends, but “girls 11-14” might be a start.
That doesn’t work when the details are fuzzy, for example, this paragraph:
https://theweek.com/politics/house-democrats-release-epstein-emails-trump
You couldn’t say “Trump knew more about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of girls 11-14 than he has acknowledged”. That suggests that the emails that were released referenced those specific ages, which they don’t.
You could say emails suggest Trump knew more about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of girls 11-14 than he has acknowledged". You sure could. You sure should! It’s the truth! It’s recorded in many places, witnessed by many people!