“Women React to a Murder Spree at UCSB With an Airing of
Grievances”
By: Conor Fiedersdorf from the Atlantic
Commentary by: Sam Smathers 4th
This
article is about the reactions that women had after Elliot Rodgers killed all
those girls at UCLA. The author includes
various tweets that women have written about the killings and says that an easy
way to find more tweets is to search the hashtag #YesAllWomen. The author
provides no opinion toward the killings.
Do I think
the women should have been killed? No. Do I think that guy was bat shat crazy?
Yes. Do I think he had a valid point? Yes. This kid was jealous of the lives
that the frat stars live. He was sad that he had never gotten laid. He was
upset about how he didn’t live the life he wanted to live, and he thought the
life he wanted to live involved sex with a lot of pretty girls, and he never
had any sex with pretty girls. That made this kid upset, and sad, and then,
obviously, very angry. The problem with this is not that this guy subjugated
women the whole time he was talking in his youtube vido, yeah that was messed
up, but the last time women were remotely equal to men we were living in caves,
patriarchy isn’t a new topic. The new thing here is that this guy was twenty
two and no where near reaching his idea of fulfillment because society told
this kid that they only way he could be happy was to fall in love and have sex
with pretty girls, and he never did this so he was upset. If society told him
that the only way to be happy was to grow potatoes, than this killing would of
never happened.
This kid did say something that I think is very
true in regards to today’s society, the kid went on about how much he hated how
materialistic we are. And I think that being materialistic is one of the largest
“sins” that society has instilled in us. The problem isn’t patriarchy, the
problem isn’t rape, and the problem is the way society views fulfillment. Sure
the other two are problems, but they are not what women should be ranting about
after this, women should be ranting about how ridiculous it is that the goals
of young men are to have sex with pretty girls, because shagging girls isn’t going
to give people fulfillment and if you cant shag girls you are just going to be
sad and then kill people. We need to change the structure of society to be more
nurturing to the individual so that people don’t get these ridiculous ideas in
their heads, like making sex the end all be all of their lives. Equal rights
for women wont stop rape or boys going on killing sprees, the only thing to
stop that is to change our society completely, and that is simply never going to happen.
Byron Otis- I was having fun reading your thoughts on this, Sam. I wish that you finished. Nice, though. I agree.
ReplyDeletesorry byron i forgot to copy the last few words from my word document, it is now complete
DeleteSam, you are a wise and insightful individual. You are the only person that I have seen( and I admit I have not been expressly searching) who has directly addressed this tragedy's disturbing reflection on society's values.
ReplyDeleteFYI your argument of "it's not the patriarchy's fault this happened, it's society's pressure on men to have lots of sex with women" - that is an effect of the patriarchy. When men don't meet those 'goals' then they actually do rape and murder women for exercising their right to say no, so the rape discussion is in fact relevant and important. Rodger saw these women as objects and not people and that's why it was so easy for him to murder them - he felt so entitled to their bodies that he had no problem taking their lives. So yes, it is absolutely the patriarchy's fault this happened. The shooting was a performance of male entitlement and misogyny and those can only exist under the patriarchy. Your argument is completely useless.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteYes, women are raped, but this is not a result of patriarchy, this is a result of, I suppose you could say, the popular endorsement of values intrinsic to the patriarch system. I did not write this to talk about rape. I don't want to talk about rape. My opinion on rape is irrelevant because this article isn't about rape. It is about some boy killing some girls because society (that is influenced by patriarchy, but is not entirely composed of patriarchy. I think my household runs just fine with my dad as the head and I don't think that my mom would run my household any better than my dad, but she could if she wanted to. Not every family is patriarchal, therefore there is not a uniform patriarch culture anymore, but the remains of the system still live to influence boys in ways that is just as destructive as the ways society influences girls.) My point was to show how society is messed up, not to show how rape is messed up. Society forces the views of patriarchy on boys and that is just as messed up as forcing them onto girls, but the views of patriarchy are not really the traditional views of patriarchy anymore. Not every family is run by a male and that is what patriarchy is. So the idea of a family being run by a male, therefore patriarchy, isn't the problem with society, it is the culture surrounding the patriarchy. You say that killing someone correlates with rape because the victim said no, but the killer/raper still continued, sure this is true, but this guy didn't rape anyone. I'm not talking about rape. This situation would be different if the guy raped everyone. He didn't. He wanted to kill them because they disgusted him because they were materialistic airheads. He didn't rape them. I'm not talking about rape.
DeleteI also don' t think that male entailment and misogyny only exist in the patriarchal system. That would be ridiculous, there will always be people that hate women, just like there will always be people that hate men, and people that hate spiders, and people that hate toast. I hope my point is clear now.
I wasn’t focusing on rape specifically. I was focusing on why men do that + murder. You’ve turned this into how much it’s NOT about rape, which I already understood. You do realize that rape isn’t really about sex but it’s about power, dominance, and control anyway? That’s why it IS a result of patriarchy. Like I said, male entitlement to women’s bodies can only exist under patriarchy. If we taught them that they do not own women’s bodies then things would be different.
DeleteI have a problem with your definition of patriarchy. You see it as a family being run by a male. If it were only that the patriarchy would not exist. The definition of it is the systemic oppression of women and women’s bodies through the dominance and supremacy of men. Contrary to what you think, there is still a uniform, traditional patriarchal culture. Women still aren’t seen as breadwinners, hence why they are paid less, women are still seen as ‘irrational 7 days a month’, and they can’t even get an abortion regardless of their circumstances. Trans women are still not seen as real women, women of color are still held up to the impossible standard of white beauty, and women of all ages, sizes, etc are still portrayed negatively in the media. This is very much alive and well in our culture. Traditional patriarchy is still rampant in American society.
But anyway. Back to the shooter. Have you read his manifesto/watched his video rants? His main reason for shooting those girls was definitely mainly about them being ‘materialistic airheads’, although it is a reason he used. He shot them because they never gave him what he felt he deserved: sex. In his mind, he deserved sex simply because he was a ‘nice’ man. And because he never had sex he felt it was his right to take away their lives. In his manifesto he actually wrote, “Women are like a plaque. They don’t deserve to have any rights. Women are vicious, evil, barbaric animals, and they needed to be treated as such. They should not get to choose who to mate and breed with.” He felt all this simply because he never had sex but it’s not his fault, it’s the women’s fault. After all, if you treat them kindly then they’ll have sex with you, right?
Also, it is possible for male entitlement and misogyny to exist elsewhere, but it wouldn’t on such a grand scale without the patriarchy existing.
Your passion about this subject is compelling and convincing. Being a girl, I feel like this issue is something I need to look in to. I suppose because I have never felt the results of the patriarchy you speak of directly, I can not quite understand the injustice related to it, regardless it exists and my disregard of the subjugation will be addressed later. I understand that you have a problem with my article and my opinion, and I am super sorry. I wrote better I am sure you wouldn't disagree so strongly, you might even laugh.
DeleteI was making slight references to Kazinski, the guy that wrote the unibomber manifesto. When I was talking about him wanting to get rid of the dumb people that waste away their lives that was a reference to how the unibomber thought that everyone was wasting their lives away by doing activities not vital to survival. I was making this guy out to be the unibomber's "second coming" if you will, as a kind of joke, but I obviously failed with trying to convey this in my article and in my reply. I was trying to make him out to be sort of a profundity, like his manifesto had some sort of import (and yes I saw the video and read the manifesto) when in all actuality he was just bat shit crazy and hated women.
In all seriousness, women should be treated with the same respect as men, but in reality, I do not see that happening any time soon because the government is run by men that want to continue subjugating women so they feel superior. Why would they make someone their equal if they didn't have to? Why give up that power? I don't think the pros for the people in charge really out weigh the cons.
Thank you for your responses they have been very thought provoking. P.S you have the coolest shoes ever. P.P.S sorry if I made you mad.
Thank you for the shoe compliment. I apologize for not catching the Kazinski references. I didn't even know who he was until seeing your comment. I felt compelled to argue with you because as a girl, this type of violence affects you too, and I wanted you to see that. Also, what male politicians may not see is that there are actually more pros that outweigh the cons of having systemic equality for women (economical reasons, for one) but I think I've exhausted this post enough.
DeleteOne last thing: I wish I could agree with you when you say he's crazy but the mentality he had of hating women is more normalized than you might think. There's no evidence that he was mentally ill (like from medical records) so we can't use that excuse on him.
to add on: there's no 'valid point' in killing women because they will not have sex with you. Women do not owe men sex, EVER.
ReplyDelete"He wanted to kill them because they disgusted him because they were materialistic airheads." --what? really?
ReplyDelete"He wanted to kill them because they disgusted him because they were materialistic airheads." --what? really?
ReplyDelete