What an explosion of conversation this week has brought. My social media feeds have been flooded with discourse that throws around the word feminism, various hashtags, and quotes from the situation at UC Santa Barbara. Honestly, I love to see people talking, but this is where my job gets hard. This is where identifying as a feminist and working toward a degree in Gender and Women’s Studies becomes really damn difficult. I’m boiling over with emotion at the statements women (and men) have released with the hashtags #YesAllWomen and #NotAllMen attached and they fill me with such frustration. We’ve started such an important conversation, but we are still not ACTING on these problems we’re so quick to identify. It’s time that something is done so there are no more stories to share. Yet, what can be done? I’m trying my hardest to be one of the movers and shakers I am taught to revere in my major courses, but it’s not an easy job.
I’ve heard plenty of individuals quickly dismiss the snippets of stories shared on Twitter and Facebook and plenty more who deny that the shooting/stabbings in California are related to gender in any way. You have to be joking to actually believe that. Have you watched Elliot Rodger’s video and read excerpts of his “manifesto”? While it is vital to discuss the proper identification, treatment, and handling of mental illness, Rodger’s video revelations DIRECTLY point to societal pressures and the ideas we’ve reproduced until they’ve become norms. His sense of entitlement to women, and their bodies in particular, is disturbing, but has been bred from media reproductions and reinforcement of this notion that men are superior, deserving, and entitled. Please just do me a favor, watch the video and try and explain to me that the comments Rodger makes and the motivating ideas behind his premeditated horror are not espoused daily through music, film, television, magazines, and more. I get a lot of crap for loving Law and Order SVU and chilling, horror films, but nothing has shaken me like listening to Rodger’s words and seeing the aftermath of his actions.
In all honesty, I’m not sure what the answer is here. Would tighter gun control have prevented the bloodshed? Probably not since the weapons were obtained illegally. What is now is that we have thousands of individuals voicing their concerns on a virtual platform. We have celebrities backing the issues, actors pairing with politicians to make commercials, and musicians releasing songs that blatantly challenge other discriminatory media. We are making strides, yes, but until this translates into policy changes and actual legislation promoting gender equality, we are not finished. And may we not forget, equality does not mean women will be elevated above men. It means that policies will one day equally protect all genders, however an individual chooses to identify, and will eliminate sexual and personal-based power violence. There has been discussion of qualifying workplace harassment and other sexual violence against women as hate crimes, but I’m not even sure that would do it. It’s too large of an epidemic and thus may detract from minority groups (sometimes) appropriately protected by hate crime laws. The last thing we need is generalized legislation that will lessen the effects of sentencing and promote the creation of more loopholes to escape prosecution.
In reality, we need allies. The most disappointing thing is having a fellow woman, who may or may not have previously endured similar injustices, say feminism is unnecessary or that you should “let it go.” This morning, a company vendor brought donuts into my office to thank our company for continuing business. As I and my other coworkers crowded the party desk to chat and eat breakfast, a man, assumingly a superintendent of one of our jobs sites who I HAVE NEVER MET, looked directly at me, and the ONE donut hole on my plate, and said, “donut holes don’t fit into bathing suits.” This is why I need feminism. I’m tough when it comes to letting comments roll off my back, but the reality of the situation is that I shouldn’t have to always be the tough one just because I identify as feminist. I need individuals to stop telling me to not take comments like this so seriously, I need people to stop telling me to leave Robin Thicke and that godforsaken music video alone, I need people to listen to my concerns and for it not to be easier for me to excuse derogatory actions and words than to vocally challenge them and stand up for what I believe in.
