Mass Murder and the Fuel of Misogyny

Illustration by Daniel Zender, The New Yorker, 15 May 2018

Since the #metoo movement took off in 2017, an increasing number of women (Note: this blog focuses on women, but fully acknowledges that more men are coming forward with stories of sexual abuse and harassment and that this warrants further attention. The intersection of victimizations experienced by LGBTQ people as well as ethnic minorities is also acknowledged, but is beyond the scope of this post) have come forward with their stories of sexual harassment and assault. The public has increasingly started to acknowledge the magnitude of misogyny as a global as well as local societal problem. Importantly, the movement it has allowed women to come forward with stories of sexual harassment that entail a much broader spectrum of abuse than physical assault and rape. This has enabled victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, or of unwanted (and often offensive) sexual attention, remarks and even stalking, in the public space and online, to come forward and describe the impact this has had on their lives. People who have lived with repressed trauma now have a large community, often online, to share their experiences and to find ways to heal. Sexual harassment, as evidenced by the Everyday Sexism Project (everydaysexism.com), has shown to be of such enormous proportions globally, that in effect it is threatening the safety and security of women as they move in the public space. (Bates 2017) According to a New York Times article, 77% of the asked women had experienced verbal sexual harassment, and 51% had experienced unwelcome sexual touching. (Chira 2018) Name-calling and jokes, or even threats, of rape by strangers or acquaintances lead women to employ protection tactics that in their most dramatic form lead to avoidance of public spaces altogether because of the fear and trauma such threats induce. It is unacceptable for societies that half the population are being traumatized and scared into often avoiding public spaces altogether, or at certain times of the day or night. As expressed by the French president Emmanuel Macron, a new law that came into practice in France in 2018 making verbal sexual harassment in public punishable with fines up to €750, was introduced to ensure that women no longer had to be afraid to be outside. (Osborne 2018)  Addressing misogyny as a hate crime on the same level as racist violence or violence against a religious group, will contribute to legitimizing the feelings of trauma in victims of misogynistic violence, be it physical or psychological, such as online trolling and death threats.

However, the issue of misogyny and resentment towards women also manifests itself in other, troubling ways. More and more frequently we see large-scale violent attacks such as school shootings and terrorist attacks with a perpetrator who turns out to have a history of domestic violence, or has expressed his hatred against women in online fora. This holds true for incidents even where the perpetrator’s targets are not specifically groups of women or girls. One example is the Orlando nightclub shooting which took place in 2016. Additionally, one statistic shows that more than half of the mass shooters from 2009-2017 in the US, had been involved in domestic violence prior to the incident. (Bosman, Taylor & Arango, 2019)

Although very few people questioned terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, or the tribal Taliban’s unmitigated attempts to eradicate women from the public sphere altogether, there has been less discussion about misogyny being the common denominator between a disturbing number of school shootings, right-wing and jihadist-inspired terrorist attacks in the recent years. While all such crimes receive enormous media attention because of their incomprehensible brutality, forensic analysts need to go a step further and look beyond their self-proclaimed “ideology” for their attacks. Where misogyny is a part of the issue and there is a history of domestic or gender-based violence, the criminal justice system as well as the health system have a responsibility to address this as a real and potent problem where victims of such crimes experience enormous trauma both through their own direct interaction with the perpetrator, but also after a large-scale attack.

The perpetrators also often have trauma in their history. Certain individuals with difficult childhoods and childhood trauma embark on the path of radicalization into violent extremism be it white supremacist groups or other terrorist groups. The same pattern is recognized in misogynists who commit mass murder, according to founder of the Violence Project and psychologist, Jillian Peterson. She said in an interview with the New York Times that angry, traumatized individuals looking for someone to blame more increasingly direct their anger at women. (Bosman, Taylor & Arango, 2019) Awareness in schools and amongst parents about the harmful effects of trauma on a child should be improved. This evidently has to include bullying and providing support to individuals who experience exclusion or rejection by their peers.

Addressing mass shootings, including terrorism, requires comprehensive analyses of the causes that trigger these incidents. One cause which has been addressed here is increased hatred for women and a misogynistic worldview which is often due to being bullied and/or rejected by peers. The anger, then, is often directed at women and girls. As psychiatrists express, it is not enough to explain these incidents with mental illness. There is an aggrieved entitlement fueling movements such as the ‘incel’-movement (short for involuntary celibate), where mass murderers attacking women are celebrated in online echo-chambers of aggrieved likeminded individuals. (Bosman, Taylor & Arango, 2019) The problem is that their grievance exist because they believe they are entitled to have access to women and to women’s bodies. Although this is but one of the factors contributing to ignite mass murder and terrorist attacks, it is an increasing common denominator as noted by Bosman, Taylor & Arango in their New York Times article. If we as societies do not address this issue and have a real discussion about why an increasing number of young men contain feelings of entitlement to women’s bodies and lives and act it out through verbal and physical abuse (if not going as far as a mass shooting) we risk losing the moment to appropriately prevent more violence and help individuals who are at risk of becoming violent criminals.

 

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