Taking Terrorism Seriously
We hear a lot these days about “preventing terrorism” or “combatting terrorism”. Terrorism is, according to the patriarchally approved American Heritage dictionary, “The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.”
What then do we make of the common male practice of beating and raping women and girls? This is, at least on paper, an unlawful use of force by a person against people – sometimes against property (witness the guy who blew up a building – and himself – rather than let his wife get it in a divorce) for the purposes of intimidating or coercing her. This may not be done in an organized fashion – although it has broad popular appeal, to judge by the sad, sad category of “humor” about battered women and rape – nor is it a traditional conspiracy (as feminists are so often accused of believing) yet there is a tacit agreement among men to let all but the most egregrious offenders off the hook, and to turn and look the other way, even law enforcement officers, when a woman is being beaten or stalked or harrassed. While this is arguably the most common form of worldwide terrorism, it is not treated as such.
The Virginia Tech shooter had a history of stalking women. Not just following them with starry eyes as the kindly (towards men) patriarchal imagination paints those poor misunderstood stalkers:
“Cho Seung-Hui had concerned one woman enough with his calls and e-mail in 2005 that police were called in.”
“Giovanni said her students were so unnerved by Cho’s behavior, including taking pictures of them with his cell phone, that some stopped coming to class and she had security check on her room. She eventually had him taken out of her class, saying she would quit if he wasn’t removed.”
“Professors and classmates were alarmed by his class writings — pages filled with twisted, violence-drenched writing.”
“His bizarre behavior became even less predictable in recent weeks, roommates Joseph Aust and Karan Grewal said.”
“Authorities said he left a rambling note raging against women and rich kids.”
But suddenly everyone is shocked when he kills a bunch of people.
Notice a pattern with these guys? Hello? Anyone? These serial killers and mass murderers who “suddenly snap” almost invariably have a problem with women. They almost always have a long history of stalking women, accusations of date rape or “domestic” violence (which are finally listed as “unfounded” and dismissed), and glorification of violence notable even for our violence-enamored society, often with a focus on violence done in sexual ways toward women.
But because women don’t matter, because women aren’t seen as people, these warning signs are not taken seriously. The campus police did not move to secure the campus early in the day when he shot the first two people because they blew it off as probably a “domestic” incident of murder/suicide – police shorthand for “He only killed a woman he’d had sex with before, so she’d probably asked for it anyway and of course he isn’t going to hurt any REAL people, just the bitch who pushed him over the edge.” Because they don’t take violence against women seriously, even murder of women, 30 more people were killed. They did track down her boyfriend to question him, but they didn’t lock down the campus in case they were wrong – they assumed a man who shoots his girlfriend isn’t a danger to any real people.
There’s a double mistake in this thinking. First of all, violence against one woman – even if the offender has a past or current relationship with her – should mean the offender is immediately taken to jail. Who cares if she wants to press charges? If someone starts beating up strangers on the street and the police are alerted, the offender goes straight to jail and the charges are sorted out later. Why? Because – and here’s a radical idea – even if she fucked him before, SHE’S STILL A HUMAN BEING WHO DOESN’T DESERVE TO GET BEATEN, RAPED, OR KILLED FOR IT. Secondly, while some men are happy to have just their own personal punching bag/gun target in the form of a woman on whom they perpetrate “intimate violence”, often a man uses women (or other low status humans, like the homeless or prostitutes) as practice before moving on to killing “real people” (like men, or unrelated university students with a career in front of them, or people with jobs, or chaste women who are married to/property of some other man). Even if you don’t take violence against an individual woman seriously, from a law enforcement perspective and a public safety perspective it is FUCKING STUPID to blow off someone who shoots, rapes, or beats his girlfriend as not being a danger to society.
Yet law enforcement does this all the time.
