Author: Emily Hobbs

Assignment Week of 2/22

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Assignment Week of 2/22

Emily Hobbs

IDST 398U

Prof. Simpson

         

          In May of 2014, a sexually frustrated and deranged 22-year old named Elliot Rodger went on a killing spree to “exact his revenge” on women. His intentions were to slaughter the women who denied him as well as the men who benefited from the love and affection of those women. The day before the massacre, Rodger uploaded a 22 minute video (https://youtu.be/t-jCSZh2tMk) explaining his sexual misfortunes along with a 137 page manifesto explaining his life, his misery and his detailed plan of revenge. Six people died, 3 of them being his male roommates, and 14 people were injured.  (YouTube link to a news video: https://youtu.be/QJc234jkJ2w ) This horrifying display of male entitlement, sexism, and violence speaks for itself about the discrimination against women and the fear we rightly experience. 

          Following the killings emerged a #YesAllWomen movement on twitter, where thousands of women shared their experiences of sexual harassment, abuse, and violence. A similar hashtag for the opposite sex, #NotAllMen, existed before the killings as a plea from men that not all of them are sex-crazed, violent, women-hating killers. This prompted the rise of response from women that is the #YesAllWomen movement. In Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things To Me, she discusses the 2014 massacre and the gun violence that results from male fury and sexual entitlement. Solnit references a tweet by Jenny Chiu that sums up the argument well: “Sure #NotAllMen are misogynists and rapists. That’s not the point. The point is that #YesAllWomen live in fear of the ones who are.” (Solnit, 125) This further explains the idea that women are merely pieces of meat to some men, a wife to make them a sandwich, and a being to owe them sex. This was definitely the mentality of Elliot Rodger, who could be the picture above the definition of “male entitlement.” Most women have experienced a man like this or a situation that warranted fear. If any woman hasn’t, there’s little chance that she won’t sometime in the future. 

          In the Netflix documentary “Feminists: What were they thinking?”, women in the movement were fighting to be heard, to be more than housewives, to be seen and allowed the basic freedom to be who they are. Their argument was that all women are in this struggle together, experiencing the same oppressions, judgments and harassments for their sex alone. This rightly based fear of harassment is why we carry pepper-spray in cute heart shaped bottles on our keychains. It is why we check our backseat before we drive, walk swiftly to our cars at night, and why we are careful to always look over our shoulders in public when alone. We, as women, are targets of male entitlement, sexual violence and abuse. The feminists of the late 20th century knew it, Rebecca Solnit knew it, and the #YesAllWomen movement knew it too. It is a scary world to live in where men like Elliot Rodger exist who have a vendetta against women and a violent urge for “retribution”. That is why Solnit encourages us to speak out and be heard about our experiences. Words matter. Language is powerful. Our voices mean something. Sexual harassment and violence has become too normalized in our society. “Rape culture” describes a society where such actions are normalized because of attitudes towards gender-based violence and sexuality. Men should be held accountable with more than a slap on the wrist and a congratulations. Women are worth it. Our experiences and stories are real, true and sadly still not believed. I hope for a world where my daughters and granddaughters won’t fear walking to their cars at night, and will sleep more soundly knowing that there is a society fighting for their safety.

Solnit Chapters 6-9 Curation

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Its not right for a woman to read! Soon she starts getting "ideas" and "thinking"... - Misc - quickmeme

Solnit Chapters 6-9 Curation

Emily Hobbs

IDST 398U

Prof. Simpson

 

          The last few chapters of Men Explain Things To Me seem to wrap up Rebecca Solnit’s ideas and raise some serious questions, arguments and observations. She begins in Chapter 6 by reflecting on the writings of Virginia Woolf, and springboards from a journal entry about darkness. “The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think.” As a generally optimistic person, this didn’t sit quite well with me. But as I continued reading, Solnit explains that the past, and the future, is dark, and it is our job to embrace the darkness as a realm of possibility, hope and the freedom that lies in the uncertainty. She explains that darkness is not a bad thing, and goes on to explain the idea of getting lost. Solnit explains how getting physically lost can lead to a wandering of the mind that stirs ideas. She explores the freedom of the mind, and the freedom that comes from roaming “geographically and imaginatively”. On page 96, Solnit references an essay by Woolf called On Being Ill that uses illness as a metaphor for the liberation of understanding what it’s like to be ill and understanding something that healthy people do not. Solnit uses Woolf to describe a type of freedom in feminism that reaches past society and institutions, but towards emotional and intellectual freedoms to explore. An excerpt at the end of the chapter conveys this idea best, “When life sank down for a moment, the range of experience seemed limitless… Beneath it is all dark, it is all spreading, it is unfathomably deep; but now and again we rise to the surface and that is what you see us by. Her horizon seemed to her limitless.” Taking a modern view of the idea of physical and mental wandering and darkness, do you agree with Woolf that the future is dark? Do you think there is meaning and hope within its uncertainty and possibility?

          Solnit moves into Chapter 7 and focuses on the power of credibility. She uses Cassandra of Troy as an example of a “boy who cried wolf” character who wasn’t believed and therefore discredited. Solnit describes years of stories of women who were believed to be delusional, dishonest and manipulative for simply telling their story and truths. She urges us to speak out and claims that the path to overcoming trauma of sexual violence is to be acknowledged. She explains fear women face about speaking up about sexual violence, how they face further abuse and humiliation for doing so and how they are often called liars. Solnit acknowledges that rare cases of false accusations exist, but urges us to make up our own mind about who to believe and why. She urges readers to recognize the pattern of discretization in order to side sweep the credibility conversation whenever a woman speaks out. 

          Chapter 8 talks about the real fear of women about sexual violence; being abused, raped and murdered. Solnit gives the example of the Isla Vista massacre in California that exemplified gender-based violence and started the #YesAllWomen movement. This online movement describes that no, not all men are misogynistic murderers, but yes, all women relate to the feeling of fear towards the ones that are. Following this massacre, definitions and words started appearing like “sexual entitlement” that embodied such gun violence and men’s fury towards women not meeting his needs. We all have seen the news and watched similar massacres. Are they ever by a woman? It’s always an angry man feeling he’s been “owed” something. 

          Solnit wraps up her book in chapter 9, explaining feminism as an age-old endeavor, examining how far we’ve come, and explaining that there is so much road left to travel towards the end of sexist oppression against women. She explains that Pandora’s box can’t be shut, queer people can’t go back in the closet, and the idea that ideas cannot be erased. There is no going back. Do you agree with Solnit? How far do you think we have left until we see real lasting change? I think there will always be oppression as long as imperfection exists in our world. There will always be, as Solnit calls it, the “volunteer police force” that tries to put women back in their place. This makes me think of Gaston in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and his line, “It’s not right for a woman to read, then she starts getting ideas and thinking.” (Video link if you want to see.) https://youtu.be/z23tQiua2S0 Well, Gaston’s fears have come true. We are educated, intelligent, capable, outspoken women who are more than just beautiful “wifey” material. I agree with Solnit, clearly we have come a long way as women, but also, there is so much further to go. Will we ever get there?  What do you think?