http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/23/why_do_they_hate_us
Check out this article. This is an essential read for those who haven't yet grasped the extent of the problem of misogyny in the Arab world, and in general. Due to the the deeply engrained idea that women are less than human, I think it makes many people numb to the barbaric treatment that women are subjected to around the world. Although something as heinous as cutting off a persons genitals should create outrage, often among the masses it is brushed off as "cultural". The systematic hatred or murdering of human beings because of immutable differences or race or religious belief almost always is considered civil war, or genocide -- EXCEPT -- if the victims are women. Then it's cultural?
I remember a scene in the movie A Time to Kill where a black girl is raped by a group of white men in the segregated south, and in the courtroom in order to evoke any sympathy from the jury, the lawyer has to describe the violent acts committed against the girl and ask the jury to imagine that she was white.
The same concept applies here. In the segregated Jim Crow south, many whites did not consider blacks human and so were insensitive to crimes committed against them.
People only react to and fight for the rights of those who they consider "human" as well.
The reason why someone can tell you there is a country where 1/2 the population is made to subjugate themselves to the level of slaves and sometimes animals, and there can be no reaction is only when you see that person as less than a person.
If I told you they were cutting the genitals off of dogs en mass there may be some groups who had more of a reaction.
But when you hear about the atrocities committed against women, take a moment and imagine that the group is a racial minority and the atrocities are committed by a racial/ethnic majority group.
If I told you that in a certain country, white were cutting off the genitals of all blacks to make them "easier to control sexually" I bet many folks would write their congressperson right now asking what are we doing about this.
Because these atrocities are happening to "people". But if men are doing things like this to women on account of their gender, this is "cultural".
It is slavery and barbarism, period. And we should all be outraged. We should all be fighting. We should all demand more from our government when interacting with governments that support mutational and rape and murder and beating and subjugation and marginalization women by law.
I strongly feel that the most important thing for us to do in the western world is to make sure that we do not contribute to the misogynistic rituals in our culture. We need to fight against the common use of dehumanizing words like b**** on television. We need to demand that popular culture not sensationalize rape and abuse and degradation of women.
There is no law against using the word n***** on television, however you don't hear white people on popular shows referring to blacks using this word. That is because we have made it socially unacceptable. But, when you examine popular TV shows, movies, really any media - you hear insults hurled at women from men. This verbal dehumanization sets the stage for violence against women and desensitizes us to hatred and physical violence against women.
The revolution starts with you. It starts with saying no more. I will no longer support popular culture media, products, advertisement, churches or religions that create an environment hostile towards women. I will no longer just laugh when a male friend uses derogatory language to describe a women in front of me. I will no longer just bob my head when misogynistic lyrics are flowing through my friends speakers. I will no longer accept that I am "implied" in the divine.
Speak up. Take a stand. Change the environment. Demand respect. Demand an environment that respects you. This is the way to change.
This society has conditioned our youth to consider abuse of women - standard. The pornography industry has boomed mostly with imagery that degrades women - urinating on women, choking women - this has become "erotic". How can we stand by and let people make films of torturing, raping, and at times simulating killing women for entertainment?! How then do you expect to have any sensitivity left when seeing a woman beaten overseas? When you have been saturated with imagery and media of all types that show women as less than human?
This is how you revolutionize your small part of the world. You create small parts of the world where it is not ok to publicly humiliate or subjugate women. This supports humanizing women. And once we get women to be perceived as human, humans will react as we always do to injustice and violations of human rights.
So take what is written in the article in the link, and imagine that one racial group was doing this to another racial group on the basis of race and see how you react compared to how you react when someone tells you these things are happening to women because of their gender which unfortunately most are inclined to feel comfortable with as a matter of "culture".
Check out this article. This is an essential read for those who haven't yet grasped the extent of the problem of misogyny in the Arab world, and in general. Due to the the deeply engrained idea that women are less than human, I think it makes many people numb to the barbaric treatment that women are subjected to around the world. Although something as heinous as cutting off a persons genitals should create outrage, often among the masses it is brushed off as "cultural". The systematic hatred or murdering of human beings because of immutable differences or race or religious belief almost always is considered civil war, or genocide -- EXCEPT -- if the victims are women. Then it's cultural?
I remember a scene in the movie A Time to Kill where a black girl is raped by a group of white men in the segregated south, and in the courtroom in order to evoke any sympathy from the jury, the lawyer has to describe the violent acts committed against the girl and ask the jury to imagine that she was white.
The same concept applies here. In the segregated Jim Crow south, many whites did not consider blacks human and so were insensitive to crimes committed against them.
People only react to and fight for the rights of those who they consider "human" as well.
The reason why someone can tell you there is a country where 1/2 the population is made to subjugate themselves to the level of slaves and sometimes animals, and there can be no reaction is only when you see that person as less than a person.
If I told you they were cutting the genitals off of dogs en mass there may be some groups who had more of a reaction.
But when you hear about the atrocities committed against women, take a moment and imagine that the group is a racial minority and the atrocities are committed by a racial/ethnic majority group.
If I told you that in a certain country, white were cutting off the genitals of all blacks to make them "easier to control sexually" I bet many folks would write their congressperson right now asking what are we doing about this.
Because these atrocities are happening to "people". But if men are doing things like this to women on account of their gender, this is "cultural".
It is slavery and barbarism, period. And we should all be outraged. We should all be fighting. We should all demand more from our government when interacting with governments that support mutational and rape and murder and beating and subjugation and marginalization women by law.
I strongly feel that the most important thing for us to do in the western world is to make sure that we do not contribute to the misogynistic rituals in our culture. We need to fight against the common use of dehumanizing words like b**** on television. We need to demand that popular culture not sensationalize rape and abuse and degradation of women.
There is no law against using the word n***** on television, however you don't hear white people on popular shows referring to blacks using this word. That is because we have made it socially unacceptable. But, when you examine popular TV shows, movies, really any media - you hear insults hurled at women from men. This verbal dehumanization sets the stage for violence against women and desensitizes us to hatred and physical violence against women.
The revolution starts with you. It starts with saying no more. I will no longer support popular culture media, products, advertisement, churches or religions that create an environment hostile towards women. I will no longer just laugh when a male friend uses derogatory language to describe a women in front of me. I will no longer just bob my head when misogynistic lyrics are flowing through my friends speakers. I will no longer accept that I am "implied" in the divine.
Speak up. Take a stand. Change the environment. Demand respect. Demand an environment that respects you. This is the way to change.
This society has conditioned our youth to consider abuse of women - standard. The pornography industry has boomed mostly with imagery that degrades women - urinating on women, choking women - this has become "erotic". How can we stand by and let people make films of torturing, raping, and at times simulating killing women for entertainment?! How then do you expect to have any sensitivity left when seeing a woman beaten overseas? When you have been saturated with imagery and media of all types that show women as less than human?
This is how you revolutionize your small part of the world. You create small parts of the world where it is not ok to publicly humiliate or subjugate women. This supports humanizing women. And once we get women to be perceived as human, humans will react as we always do to injustice and violations of human rights.
So take what is written in the article in the link, and imagine that one racial group was doing this to another racial group on the basis of race and see how you react compared to how you react when someone tells you these things are happening to women because of their gender which unfortunately most are inclined to feel comfortable with as a matter of "culture".
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