Enough is Enough! Hate Crimes Against Women
by Patricia Garrison
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
How many times must females be killed because they are female, before we start decrying these horrific acts for what they are: hate crimes? Although gender is included as a category in the federal hate crimes bill signed into law last year, the recognition that women and girls are targeted and murdered solely because of their sex has yet to infiltrate our cultural framework or spark any sense of collective outrage. The media have yet to cover these crimes as acts of growing anti-women violence. Given the pervasive sexism in news and entertainment, that should come as no surprise.
To be sure, our vulnerability as females is nothing new. At all ages, females are 90% more likely to be the victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment and rape. While not all crimes targeting women can be classified as hate crimes, what does appear to be a serious and growing trend are the random killings of females by men for no other reason than that they are female.
This past week, Geraldo Regolado killed his wife and later himself, but not before shooting six other women and killing three of them in a Florida restaurant. “He went straight for the women,” according to a police detective.
Last year, a man entered an all-female aerobics class in Pittsburgh, shot 10 women and killed three of them before killing himself. His apartment revealed a stash of hate-filled writings and videos directed towards women, fomented by his inability to get a date. A few years ago, women and girls were killed in their homes and backyards in New Jersey and other Eastern states by a truck driver with a known hatred of females who targeted women living off interstates. He was finally thwarted by a father who heard the killer enter his young daughter’s bedroom and caught him in a choke-hold. It’s heartbreaking to recall the mass murder of nine young Amish girls by a local milk truck driver who let the boys go before executing the girls, aged 6-13, in their Pennsylvania school house.
At the core of these crimes are hatred of females, yet the media, and society insist upon seeing them as isolated. Yes, they’re terrible and disturbing, but explainable, right? After all, these men were spurned, rejected by women, or troubled by some past event.
We could spend time dissecting and analyzing why society and the media resist calling these crimes what they are and refuse to go beyond discussing some tepid motive for the rampages. But, I think we inherently know what the reasons are. Culturally, we have regressed to a point where the objectification of females is pervasive and accepted – by both genders.
Meanwhile, boys and young men are given strong cultural cues that to be a ‘real man’ is to control abuse and degrade women. When sexism is permitted to flourish for years in a society that already glorifies violence, sexual exploitation and machismo, this is what you get at the extreme.
We have, I think, made progress in acknowledging that when crimes are committed against people because they are gay, African-American, Latino, or Jewish than they are indeed hate crimes. As women, we need to think about crimes against our gender in the same way, call them what they are, and demand – loudly – that enough is enough.
SOURCE & HAT TIP: The New Agenda
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
How many times must females be killed because they are female, before we start decrying these horrific acts for what they are: hate crimes? Although gender is included as a category in the federal hate crimes bill signed into law last year, the recognition that women and girls are targeted and murdered solely because of their sex has yet to infiltrate our cultural framework or spark any sense of collective outrage. The media have yet to cover these crimes as acts of growing anti-women violence. Given the pervasive sexism in news and entertainment, that should come as no surprise.
To be sure, our vulnerability as females is nothing new. At all ages, females are 90% more likely to be the victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment and rape. While not all crimes targeting women can be classified as hate crimes, what does appear to be a serious and growing trend are the random killings of females by men for no other reason than that they are female.
This past week, Geraldo Regolado killed his wife and later himself, but not before shooting six other women and killing three of them in a Florida restaurant. “He went straight for the women,” according to a police detective.
Last year, a man entered an all-female aerobics class in Pittsburgh, shot 10 women and killed three of them before killing himself. His apartment revealed a stash of hate-filled writings and videos directed towards women, fomented by his inability to get a date. A few years ago, women and girls were killed in their homes and backyards in New Jersey and other Eastern states by a truck driver with a known hatred of females who targeted women living off interstates. He was finally thwarted by a father who heard the killer enter his young daughter’s bedroom and caught him in a choke-hold. It’s heartbreaking to recall the mass murder of nine young Amish girls by a local milk truck driver who let the boys go before executing the girls, aged 6-13, in their Pennsylvania school house.
At the core of these crimes are hatred of females, yet the media, and society insist upon seeing them as isolated. Yes, they’re terrible and disturbing, but explainable, right? After all, these men were spurned, rejected by women, or troubled by some past event.
We could spend time dissecting and analyzing why society and the media resist calling these crimes what they are and refuse to go beyond discussing some tepid motive for the rampages. But, I think we inherently know what the reasons are. Culturally, we have regressed to a point where the objectification of females is pervasive and accepted – by both genders.
Meanwhile, boys and young men are given strong cultural cues that to be a ‘real man’ is to control abuse and degrade women. When sexism is permitted to flourish for years in a society that already glorifies violence, sexual exploitation and machismo, this is what you get at the extreme.
We have, I think, made progress in acknowledging that when crimes are committed against people because they are gay, African-American, Latino, or Jewish than they are indeed hate crimes. As women, we need to think about crimes against our gender in the same way, call them what they are, and demand – loudly – that enough is enough.
SOURCE & HAT TIP: The New Agenda
Comments