Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Disheartening Defense of a Crime of Violence Against a Woman
I was fully aware of the steep decline in journalistic integrity that has plagued the once respected weekly TIME magazine, but was not ready for this disgusting piece of yellow journalism. TIME sort of plays the thing from all sides. The most obvious side being that the white ruling class in South Africa must protect itself from the violent, criminal masses yearning to break into their private compounds, or laagers, read gated and heavily armed communities or clusters of mansions. I think that the photo of Pistorius on the cover will sell very well at the grocery store and drugstore checkout stands across the U.S., but TIME magazine may not be ready for the negative fallout that they will receive after publishing this sickening apology and justification for the cold-blooded murder of an innocent girlfriend by a gun-wielding, yet insecure, egomaniac.
The entire article seems to be a plea to accept Pistorius's implausible explanation of shooting his own woman through a bathroom door. Absolutely disgusting.
As Pistorius serves out his term in prison, he won't have to worry about killing anyone else with a gun again.
I hope that my link to the article works.
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Kobe Bryant, Mike Tyson, George Huhuely, Masato Uchishiba … all sports heroes turned sexual predators. However, if we focus on one idiosyncratic crime sensationalized in the tabloids, we miss a global perspective. Sexual violence is endemic, epidemic and rampant throughout the world - in sports, in the armed services, in prisons and detention centers, in the Catholic Church, in politics, on college campuses, on every continent, and in all cities, towns and villages.
ReplyDeleteAlthough some of my colleagues take exception with my next statement, the time is long overdue to expose and condemn a patriarchal culture that drives this misogyny.
Was this a crime of misogyny? I think that's a separate issue. I don't think the guy hated his girlfriend for being female. We're talking about a country just beginning to move away from being the most racist land on Earth and with a stunning disparity in wealth and status. This crime is meaningless in terms of its significance to the whole and if anything is disgusting, it's making a propaganda soap opera out of a sordid murder. I think it presumptuous to call it typical of anything and equally so to ignore the huge number of non-celebrity people killed by armed burglars and intruders every day.
ReplyDeleteIs there a presumption here that being middle class in South Africa means you deserve the fate your "class" is relegated to by some political theory? Really? 'Cause if that ain't racism, I don't know what is. We've had a century of horror based on class vindictiveness. You'd think we'd have learned from it.
Yes, yes, yes, the "thought she was a burglar" defense does indeed sound ridiculous to say the least, but I'm not going to pronounce judgement based on a newspaper report and none of us were there either. After all people here are often shot accidentally by a family member and you can't blame that on the usual radical left straw men -- but when the article states that South Africa is:
" a racially splintered society in which fear and distrust are so pervasive that citizens shoot first and ask questions later."
I think it's an almost comical understatement. It's true and truth isn't an apology. The level of violent crime there is something we've never had here - ever - and I have to believe that if we "ruling class" folks with the money to do so would react by living in gated communities with guards, I'm sure some wag would snark about it but 'tis better to get snickered at than murdered in our beds.
Frankly I don't see the article as that much of a defense of Pistorius. If he indeed shot through a door recklessly thinking his girlfriend was an armed intruder, he's guilty of manslaughter at the very, very least, but that's up to the courts and not us, on the other side of the world with our pet opinions.
South Africa has instituted new and very stiff gun control laws and the shootings have declined dramatically since. Are we ignoring that on purpose? It hasn't been long at all since Apartheid ended, the anger is still there and most of all the inequality hasn't changed much either. To present this a as simply the result of a male dominated country that doesn't respect women isn't just a deliberate oversimplification in my opinion. It sounds as suspiciously like pressing events into the service of politics -- sort of like the description of someone owning or holding a gun as "gun wielding" in order to amp up the anger.
Florida is covered with gated communities and many have armed security. The one across the street from me even has roving guards with dogs. Florida is a state with a huge gap between rich and poor and with little distance between them. A small community like mine is the scene of almost daily burglaries and armed home invasions are too common.
What would you do if you could afford to do it? Would you think "oh well, I guess I deserve to have my home looted and my life endangered because after all I'm white and I have a decent income?" or would you choose to raise your family in the safest place you could afford?
Look, we're not journalists and we certainly aren't adhering to any journalistic standards or principles that might exist, so please let's not act like keyboard wielding cowboys, shooting from the hip at something that sort of looks like a target -- and not asking questions at all.
Each crime may appear idiosyncratic on the surface but, when you examine the preponderance of data, the prevalence of sexual violence against women by men far exceeds the prevalence of violence against men by women, as examples:
ReplyDeleteAccording to U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (1998, 2003):
91% of rape victims are female, 9% are male;
99% of those convicted of rape are male, 1% are female;
17.7 million American women have been victims of rape or attempted rape.
According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control (2011):
20% of ALL women suffered rape or attempted rape at some time in their lives.
Lifetime prevalence of rape or attempted rape by ethnicity:
17.7% - White women
18.8% - Black women
6.8% - Asian/Pacific women
34.1% - American Indian women
24.4% - Mixed race women
In fact, the statistical prevalence rate of sexual violence against women is far higher in consideration of these data:
Rape – only 31% reported
Attempted rape – only 20% reported
Notwithstanding worldwide news accounts of atrocities against women, such as: Acid attacks and facial disfigurement of women in Afghanistan, a young Pakistani teenager shot in the head for merely wanting an education, gang rape and murder aboard a bus in India, the practice of genital mutilations of women in third world countries, women who were raped and subsequently prosecuted for adultery or engaging in pre-marital sex (read: victim blame and abuse), whole villages of women in the Congo gang-raped and mutilated by militias … need I say more?
Here is the saddest irony of all: Reeva Steenkamp, a leading advocate against violence against women, was killed on Valentine’s Day – an irony missed by most tabloids that reported this story.
Men tend to be bigger, stronger and more aggressive and women aren't well equipped to rape. Even if most men are decent, which they are, the numbers would be lopsided. Men commit more violent crimes of all sorts and culture is only part of it.
DeleteObviously we have an ancient tradition of women being property and having less freedom in many cultures, ours included. Just look at the "Good Book."
Bad as we may be, we're doing a better job of undoing that tradition then many other countries, or so I think, but we're fighting not only a long tradition but nature itself to some extent. That's hard in a culture that simultaneously rewards and praises men for aggression.
Very liberal countries like the Netherlands have far, far less of the problem. Does that say something about being liberal or at least not subject to the religious right and its 'traditional values?' I won't say "bring on the hookers, bring on the porn" because I don't like being yelled at, but that's one big difference between Amsterdam and New Amsterdam, seems to me. Our country, our culture has a sex problem and I think it affects the way we see and treat women.
But I digress. I simply don't see this Pistorius thing as being an example of anything other than murder at worst and manslaughter at best. Not a trend in one direction or another and we wouldn't have heard of it but that athletes are held up to us as examples of manly virtue.
I think it's reasonable that Pistorius carried a gun. But that type of lethal protection carries with it its own dangers and responsibilities. Truthfully, I almost took this post down because I realized I was adding nothing of value. I went back and reread the TIME piece and felt my criticism was valid. Just nothing to contribute to the discussion.
ReplyDeleteYour reports of violence in Florida are truly alarming and disheartening. I don't think much about these types of crimes. A home invasion in California is usually a huge news item. Most of our gated communities around San Diego are a rather sleepy affair. People feel secure. Their property is a lot safer than it would be elsewhere. There have been numerous rapes in women's homes or out on the jogging paths over the years. We have had appalling child abductions with sexual torture and murder. There is no escaping the darker side of humankind.
I don't know that he carried one, but you're absolutely right. A gun is power and power requires responsibility and shooting through the door is pretty damned irresponsible. One of the things South Africa has done with their gun control efforts is to require a license which has to be renewed and reviewed periodically, but there as here, criminals have a huge number of illegally owned and illegally obtained weapons. Still I read they've halved their gun crime rate since the laws were past. It's not like they're not trying.
DeleteFlorida has a lot of 'manufactured' housing and mobile homes -- often with elderly occupants - they're prime targets. We have poverty living next to wealth. Quite a few billionaires living in my zip code along with shacks and low end trailer parks. Home invasions in Florida are pretty high. Not quite like Johannesburg, but I can sympathize to an extent.
There's a gang from the Lauderdale area that's perpetrated nearly 2000 burglaries in the area over the last year. Most of the victims have been working people who can hardly afford to lose cash and other valuables.
Does it help to have a gun in the house? I doubt it in most cases and guns are, here and in South Africa a prime target for burglars. Kind of makes it a vicious circle. A gate does help though and that's why they're everywhere. I'm in a gated community but no guards or dogs. I couldn't live that way.