misogyny

Between my only two classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I while away the hour and a half in the nearest campus computer lab. With every student taking class at this campus given a username and password upon enrollment, we keep our internet records straight and ensure that any unauthorized activity is properly handled.

Today I went to my usual tucked-in-the-corner computer and sat down to the sign-in screen. Now with our sign-in and sign-out system, the screen keeps the last username to sign out in the box to fill out. Today my screen read "Username: Women are stupid".

I'm signed in, and I'm writing now; but there's something unexpectedly painful about seeing that message. Knowing that the person (I can only assume a man seeing as most women's suspicion of other females is so rarely so intense as to inspire this sort of effort) had to sign out and deliberately type the words before leaving-- I mean, seriously, this was needless and impulsive, not the move of an intelligent person.

Herbert’s article, from my last post, was right when it said that media was so littered with violence and insult against women that people just aren’t recognizing it for what it is. People have become so immune to misogyny that we don’t even recognize it as insulting anymore. Today I came across probably one of the most nauseating articles that I’ve read in a while. I was linked to it from an article which reported the gruesome murder of Adrian “Addie” Hall – a woman in the midst of New Orleans during hurricane Katrina, who came up with a desperate way in which to assure that there was a regularly patrolling officer near her house – by flashing them when they came by.

This isn't going to be a commentary from me. I just wanted to forward an article that I just read to all of you. Written by Bob Herbert from the NY Times, I think it succinctly captures a lot of the things going through our heads since the shootings in PA. Enjoy.

Why Aren’t We Shocked?

By BOB HERBERT
Published: October 16, 2006

"Who needs a brain when you have these?"
— message on an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt for young women

"In the recent shootings at an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania and a large public high school in Colorado, the killers went out of their way to separate the girls from the boys, and then deliberately attacked only the girls.

The most recent rash of school shootings is as jarring as its predecessors, but no one seems to be noticing the trend: what makes it such a crime to be young and female? Jessica over at Feministing brought this up earlier, and I realized I wasn't the only one whose mind went for the political as I watched the Amish families and children waiting outside of their school.

In reporting both shootings that monopolized this week's headings (along with the statutory sexual harassment perpetrated by the ex-co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children), no one in the mainstream media had bothered to note that the adult male shooters had specific victims in mind: namely, young girls. Duane Morrison of the Platte Canyon High School hostage situation sexually assaulted the young girls he isolated before assassinating one; Charles Carl Roberts actually released the adults and boys before lining up and executing a line of girls in front of their classroom blackboard. Why is two and two so difficult to put together? Why is no one reporting on the blatant and dangerous misogyny that drove these two admittedly catastrophic and heartbreaking events?