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August 03, 2006
Belle Waring at Crooked Timber links to a couple of posts about a woman who was raped and murdered in New York City last week. The first post is about how the New York Post changed the victim's eye color to make the story seem more racially charged. The second -- by Amanda at Pandagon -- is a response to the general trend of the comments to the first, and in particular a number of attempts to blame the victim. Apparently it's her fault because she should have known better than to go out partying.
Amanda's post is great, which is typical for her, except that the pentultimate paragraph starts like this:
The guy who killed Moore threw her body in the trash like it was a Kleenex. He did that because he lives in a society that endorses treating women like less than human beings but simply masturbation toys and/or baby incubators for male use.
Really? Are you sure? Because I'm thinking maybe it's because he's a sociopath. I agree that, to some extent, we live in such a society as she describes, and that this is a bad thing. But is that really all you think is going on in this case?
[A short pause while Todd goes off and reads the comments at Crooked Timber.]
Damnit. It looks like my points have already been made.
Once:
As to “how society perpetuates rape,” I’m equally at a loss: I don’t think stranger rapes are any less disfavored in society than bank robbery, and yet people still commit bank robbery. I don’t know how I would comment on the proposition that “society perpetuates bank robbery.” This is not to say that you couldn’t have a more particularized discussion about aspects of misogynistic violence and its social background—Catharine MacKinnon, for one, has a lot to say about that—but it seems unlikely that a particular case of stranger-rape/murder would provide an useful or interesting angle on that subject.
And again:
From the Pandagon post: [Quotes the same sentences I did]This is bullshit with a captial ‘B’. The guy who killed Moore wasn’t only a rapist and murderer—he had a long criminal record. Did he commit his earlier robberies because ‘he lives in a society that endorses treating passersby like ATM machines’? No—he committed all of his crimes because he just didn’t give a damn what society endorsed or condemned.
Personally, I'll settle for a lowercase 'b'.
I'd also disagree that society goes so far as to treat women like less than human. This smacks of some Feminazi claim more than one most people would believe (female or male).
But back to sociopaths: Warped minds will find their justification in anything -- a sexist society, violent films, or a dog named Harvey (Son of Sam). To say society created the propensity in people to be sociopathic is just as flawed as saying society perpetuates sociopathic behavior with swimsuit calendars. There is nothing wrong with sexuality. There is something wrong with people who act on it with violent ends.
I'd say the problem isn't with strippers, escorts, the porn industry, or Baywatch. The problem is with the creepy bouncer who kidnaps a young woman, tortures her, and kills her just to get his sexual kicks.
It seems like Amanda's comment is targeted at pornography. But if women were as interested in seeing naked men as men were in seeing naked women, then there would be just as many "objectified" men in American society. I'd urge her to rally together with her female friends and start buying all the male porn they can. Hell, create a movement.
It might help turn the tables a bit on this sexist society, and more importantly, help us focus on the real ways to treat sociopathic behavior.
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