Elliot Roger and the ultimate misogyny

A man called Elliot Rodger has killed seven people more are in hospital in critical condition, after writing a 140 page manifesto speaking of how much he hates women and how they should be “punished” for not being interested in him. People have already started, particularly the media, spouting about how he was a madman and how this was completely out of the blue, and helpfully skirting past the fact that he specifically went after women, the fact that he drove to a sorority house so he specifically could kill women, the fact that he had tried to push a group of women off of a 10 foot ledge years earlier for ignoring him, the fact that he subscribed to multiple men’s rights activist (MRA) YouTube channels and various pick-up artists for entrapping women, and the fact that his 140 page manifesto spoke gleefully about: “On the day of retribution, I will enter the hottest sorority house of UCSB, and I will slaughter every single spoiled stuck up blonde slut I see inside there… I’ll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you. You will finally see that I am in truth the superior one. The true Alpha Male.” 

All of this appears to have been for the most part ignored whereas lets be honest, if a woman mentioned once that she hates men and wrote about killing them the media and the public would speak about nothing else calling her a misandrist and a man hater and everything else and she would be rightfully vilified. Multiple serial killers and spree killers have specifically gone after women and girls and yet this is never spoken about as a problem or as the hate crime which it is. If he had specifically gone after people of colour or people of a different religion it would no doubt be rightfully considered a hate crime. Yet this is spoken about as a random tragedy completely out of the blue, ignores the victims and sympathises with the killer, with many taking to the internet to blame the women for rejecting his advances in the first place because how dare they deny him the sex he as a man is rightfully entitled to.

This is a societal problem which will continue to worsen if people don’t wake the fuck up, step up and do something about it. This is not an isolated incident, it is a product of a culture which makes men feel entitled to women in every way especially sexually. Any woman whose ever been catcalled knows this, any woman who’s ever been raped or sexually assaulted knows this, it is a big booming message which says “Women, you are for men. Your bodies are for them to look at, judge, comment on, touch with or without your permission. They can touch you, grope you, sexually harass and demean you, demand your attention as if it is their right. You are an object for men’s sexual gratification and if you reject him he has every right to get angry you friend zoning, stuck up bitch.” Just a couple of months ago a 16 year old girl was stabbed by a boy for refusing to go to prom with him. More than 2 women a week are murdered by their current or former partners. Estimated 85,000 women are raped in England and Wales alone each year (bearing in mind 85% of rapes go unreported) and 400,000 women are sexually assaulted each year. Worldwide 1 in every 3 women will be raped or beaten in their lifetime. I cant count the amount of times I’ve been grabbed, followed, catcalled, harassed, heard what a complete stranger thinks of my breasts and ass and legs, told ‘boys will be boys’ and told that I should simply put up with it as my body is their right and I should just be grateful for their attention.

Victim blaming is so prominent how can we even question when a victim of domestic abuse and sex crimes doesn’t report or speak about it. And once again it has reared its ugly head with this crime, with people coming up with such gems such as:

• “As much as I sympathize with the victims, I sympathize with the killer too, and just as much. The sad fact is that the majority of women are shallow whores who gravitate to men that treat them like shit. A brute, a womanizer, a rapist or a wife beater will NEVER be without a woman…that’s because many women LIKE and ENJOY being with assholes but then have the utter gall to start crying when they get raped or get the shit beaten out of them.”
• “God rest that man’s soul. He hunted them with glee and finally felt fulfilled. Glorious!”
• “Heaven has gained another angel. His work for The Lord, his retribution against the whores and sodomites. May he rest in peace.”
• “Wow, I’m surprised a woman would be so honest as to make this statement, which is 100% true. More and more we are seeing women lower themselves to guys who treat them like dog shit. And more and more we are seeing good men being driven to do desperate things, because they simply don’t understand why being a good person is so repulsive to women. It’s disgusting the way women have REGRESSED under feminism. Feminism has destroyed women.”

I would like to say im sorry for the long rant but im not, the fact that more people aren’t ripping their hair out in outrage that this is happening and is frankly getting worse is so depressing I feel genuinely sick. There’s so much wrong in the way women and girls are still treated in the world and so many people refuse to even acknowledge it. I feel so helpless I don’t know what to do to stop it. I am so tired of being scared to go out, fearing for my sister and female family members and friends, having to cross the street out of fear when a group of men come towards me, double and triple checking my outfit and wondering if I am attacked will it warrant my blame, carrying rape alarms and my keys poking between my knuckles with only one headphone in. The men that I love seem to be the exception to the rule. I know that there will be people who laugh at this and think im over-reacting and call me a feminazi and they don’t think it affects them in any way and they have no idea that statistically if they have any women around them at all at least some of them will have been raped, assaulted or beaten by a man at some point in their life. How many more women have to die before society accepts that its a problem.

Anyone who has read this, anyone who has heard the news and knows the statistics, who knows a victim of this oppression or is one now either has to do one of two things; acknowledge that there is a problem and speak out and do what they can to try to help the world change, or acknowledge that there is a problem and admit that they just don’t care.