Gendered atrocities

December 2012 will be remembered as the month when two horrific events took place: the Newtown shooting, which cost 26 lives (if I’m not mistaken), and a brutal gang-rape in New Delhi, which cost the victim’s life. (UPDATE: One of many, but for once the victims survived long enough to tell their story, and for once people listened.) In both cases, the events set in motion a wave of collective outrage, raising in particular the inevitable questions of how something like this could have happened, and what can be done to prevent similar atrocities in the future.

What do the two events have in common? One thing they have in common is the imperativeness of viewing both from the perspective of gender roles. With respect to the rape case, the gender dimension is immediately apparent, as rape is one of the most brutal and yet extremely widespread forms of male domination over women. But the mass shooting in Newtown, and in fact mass shootings in general in the USA, may (and should!) also be discussed against the background of gender roles. The fact is that virtually every mass shooting has been perpetrated by men (and in fact, mostly by white, middle to upper class males), and this is no coincidence.

Rather than offering an extensive analysis myself (I’m no gender theorist), I just want to link to two insightful texts: a blog post by CUNY philosopher Samir Chopra on the gang-rape in India, and a great text at the news site AlterNet on why it is no coincidence that men and men alone are committing atrocities such as mass shootings. Both texts come to similar conclusions, and Samir’s post in particular has a great line: “Bring up a boy to be a boy and there is a good chance you are bringing him up to be someone that will be disrespectful to women.” Sad but true, and I’m not sure whether, as a parent, it is harder to raise a girl who you know will have to deal with male shitiness all her life, or to raise a boy who, despite your best efforts, will pick up all the culturally implicit cues on what it means to be a ‘real man’, and perhaps become one of those distributing male shitiness.

But today is the last day of the year, and perhaps a modicum of hope is in order. So let us hope that these gruesome events, the Newtown shooting and the gang-rape in India, will not have been ‘in vain’, and that some real change will come from them.

Happy 2013, everyone!