In a culture increasingly distorted by manosphere ideology, Sean “Diddy” Combs’s acquittal on racketeering and sex trafficking charges has become a cause celebre that glamorizes male power and excuses violence against women.

His sentencing, 50 months for transporting individuals across state lines for commercial sex, is a significant reprieve from the potential life sentences he could have received for sex trafficking. This coincides with alarming revelations about Jeffrey Epstein’s network, consisting of luminaries in business, finance and government.

In both cases, a disturbing number of men seemed to view the sexual violation of women as an essential perk in their positions of authority.

This lionization of sexual abuse by powerful men is not happenstance, but is a byproduct of a hypermasculine culture that extolls entitlement to women’s bodies. In this environment, Combs’s acquittal, and the celebration that followed, boosted his street cred, with prison inmates applauding his verdict and many speculating about his comeback.

The celebration mirrors contemporaneous........

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