Where I'm going with all this is that the new issue of The Nation (which I read at the dentist's office) has an excellent column by Katha Pollitt, "Unnatural Born Killer":
We are so used to violence against women we don't even notice how used to it we are. [my italics] When we're not persuading ourselves that women are just as violent toward men as vice versa if you forget about who ends up seriously injured or dead, or pointing out that most murders are of men by men, we persuade ourselves that violence against women just comes up out of nowhere. Murder is serious, especially if the victim is young, white, middle-class, pretty; harassment, abuse, domestic violence, even rape, not so much. After all, as I'm writing, I read that Houston, taking a leaf from Sarah Palin's Wasilla, is requiring rape victims to pay for the processing of their rape kits. Los Angeles has a backlog of 12,669 unprocessed rape kits, some so old the crimes have exceeded the statute of limitations. It's controversial to even use terms like "misogyny" and "male privilege" to explain the prevalence of these crimes and the shameful inadequacy of our social and legal response to them. And if you really want to be branded a square and a prude, try talking about the hatred and contempt for, and objectification of, women that permeates pop culture.We have an awfully long way to go as a culture. Food for thought.
9 comments:
What is the stat-----every 16 seconds a woman is physically abused in this country? And still, some refuse to believe this. I'm remembering when we started Men Stopping Rape back in 1983. The comments we'd get. They still give me the shivers to this day. Yes, we have a long way to go as a culture.
As for the thugs in my town, they mostly became cops in our town where they could hurt people as part of their job.
Yeah. Man, how I miss Police Chief David Couper!!!! He was a prince. I understand he's writing a book about his philosophy of policing. I look forward to reading it.
Breaking news is that Fokky is dead, probably suicide. The news reports are vague at this point.
I remember him well: A legendary bully and reprobate, so I am not in the least bit surprised to hear this piece of news. At the risk of sounding callous (heaven forfend when discussing someone like Fokky Weber!), the gene pool is probably healthier for his absence.
M
What a sad story and how very predictable in some ways considering this guy's taste for violence and bullying as a child.
Yesterday was one year since I was raped. I didn't mark the day mostly because it pains me that the rapist is free to attack other women. The prosecutor's office thought the case was too week and would ultimately be a "waste of money."
So how many prevented rapes would have made it worth the trouble? I asked.
Oh hell. Weak. Not week.
When you think of it all its horrible. Just horrible. I mean that many kits that havent even been gotten to yikes.. So many people in courts now a days for the smallest things and they cant even take a minute out of there busy days to get a rape case or two in a week at least..
With all due respect to people with whom I normally agree and whose opinions I respect, cracks about cops as bullies don't represent most cops. That might be your experience. But not the cops I know and love. I don't find these generalizations helpful.
Statistics show that kids who bully grow up to be bullies. And criminals. A good 25% will end up in the justice sytem before age 25. And that stuff about them coming from "troubled homes" has also be debunked. Most bullies have exceptionally high self-esteem, and their behavior is frequently condoned by their parents.
See Dan Olweus' Bullying at School.
Re: the cops as bullies issue, I agree that many cops are not bullies by nature. Unfortunately, what seems to be happening in our city right now is that the police (and I know this is a top-down decision) are relying more on gadgets like Tasers and less on good old fashioned mediation to handle certain problems. They aren't trained in skills that de-escalate problems, and frequently things escalate when the police show up. That's the fault of the leadership, to be sure. Madison had an amazing police chief for a while, and I miss his police force.
Yesterday they ended up using pepper spray AND a Taser to "subdue" a man who brought what may or may not have been a service dog into a local McDonald's and became belligerent when management questioned him about it. Was that REALLY necessary? Or was it the action of officers who haven't been trained to do anything else?
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