Females Beware: Existing May Be Dangerous to Your Life

The day after a random man walked into an Amish school with the specific intention to kill all of the girls, I wrote Shooting Girl-ery on BlogHer about how this tragic latest incident was just another in a long series of violence perpetrated against women. A mere few days before the Pennsylvania “incident,” a man burst into a school in Colorado, and sexually assaulted six young women before killing one of them. In the weeks following Shooting Girl-ery, more ink has been spilled on the topic and hand-wringing has taken place, including in the mainstream media. Finally.

Kim Pearson wrote an excellent piece,Some dare call it femicide, on BlogHer in conjunction with Domestic Violence Awareness month. (October sure is a busy month for awareness of women’s issues. Between paying attention to saving our breasts from cancer and being hurt by loved ones, who has time to worry about being killed by total strangers, right?) Pearson’s post excerpts a thought-provoking column by Bob Herbert in Monday, Oct. 16’s New York Times about violence against women. She links to Feminist Law Professors, who posted the article in its entirety, with the added benefit of also attaching a disturbing moisturizer ad mentioned in the article but not shown.

Katie at Social commentary NOT based on particular books also wrote about Herbert’s article (and reprints the article in full at the bottom of her post), but had a very different perspective on it:

Mr. Herbert frustrated me by spening [sic] more words naming individual controversial things society is casual about (rap, GTA:VC, etc.) than he did making the following controversial point, which is a lot easier to focus on and really get people to come to conclusions about:

“the relentless violence against women and girls is linked at its core to the wider society’s casual willingness to dehumanize women and girls, to see them first and foremost as sexual vessels — objects — and never, ever as the equals of men...”

All right, then; I'll start the debate… How many readers here agree with the above statement?

Today The New York Times published a few letters to the editor in response to Herbert’s column. All five supported Herbert’s points. I found one letter in particular to be moving. Bruce Rider from Grapevine, TX sadly noted:

On the day that Bob Herbert wrote about violence against women, the youngest of my five granddaughters took her first steps.

His excellent and chilling column makes me wonder what kind of world she is stepping into.

Another writer, Rebecca Eisenberg of Scarsdale, NY came to the same conclusion I did a few weeks ago:

As parents, we must not only continually educate and empower our daughters, but also educate, empower and sensitize our sons.

It’s a tough battle, given the constant pounding of these negative messages, but one that must be continually fought.

I couldn’t agree more. It is up to us to fight the “battle” for better educated people of all sexes so that Mr. Rider's granddaughter and other girls have a safer future; otherwise, the war against girls and women will continue to pile up its female causalities.

Suzanne also blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants