Response to the article "Women at Risk"

When a gunman separated the girls from boys and shot only the girls in an Amish community in 2006, I remember only hearing about it in passing, with a “see, Amish people have violence too” message attached to it. When a gunman mowed down women at an aerobics studio earlier this year –including wounding the pregnant instructor –it did not even come on any new channels or magazine I peruse regularly. Why do killings where women are targeted receive so little press time and attention? Is that we are that accustomed to violence against women as a society? Or that many simply do not care? Why are misogynistic killings so underreported and publicized? While it is important to note that women have made strides with rights in the United States, patriarchy and patriarchical values still play a large role in women’s lives. In the killings described above, misogynistic ideals were not only used to judge and oppress women as “temptresses” or “less worthy” but used to justify the killing of dozens. When we, as a society, stand by and do not react, we reinforce that the careful and thoughtful killing of girls and women does not mean as much as thought out killing of men. Even with all the time the press gives serial killers and rapists on the news, the dialogue is about a perverse fascination with the killer’s mind and motive rather than the horror that he (or she in a select few cases) is systematically killing and targeting women. Why is this not the hate crime that a systematic extermination of blacks, Jews or Muslims would be?
This system is tragic towards women but equally detrimental to men; how sad a society in which men are forced to prove their manhood in such tangible ways. It is not enough for a man to have a good work ethic, hold a job, help others or care for his community. Manliness is defined to a certain degree by domination –there are only a select few who can be “alpha males,” oppressing and conquering all around them. What better way than to define oneself as this than by dominating and physically conquering (even to death) the women around one? Sodini, who perpetuated the crime at the aerobics studio, reportedly did it because “30 million women had rejected [him].” He also reportedly stalked girls, claiming that one 16 year old girl had sex with her boyfriend more in a month, than he had in his life at 48. This, he claimed, was another reason to kill women. Manhood, for Sodini, was measured solely by domination and sexual conquests with women.
The question then becomes, how do we begin to change such a serious and imbedded cultural problem? While I have no concrete social reform policies, it is apparent that the need for change lies in the perception of women. As with much else, the answer is tied largely to the ever-present mind/body duality that Moon first introduced to us. In the pornography, clothing, and media industries (3 of the most prominent and widely viewed in the US), women are largely seen as highly-sexual (and rather deviant and ungodly) beings. With killers claiming to see “promiscuity in [a woman’s] eyes,” labeling women as “temptresses,” and Sodini killing based on sexual rejection and frustration, it is clear that women are the earthly, body and clearly less respectable form of this dual nature. With a perception this degrading and skewed, it is clear that very little progress can be made without a complete revaluation of the role and intrinsic nature of women.