Gloria Steinem’s article, “Supremacy Crimes”, gave good insight into the world of hate crimes and violent acts committed by white, heterosexual males. While most stereotypes focus on black males being aggressive, this article gave a different perspective, citing that the majority of hate crimes, or sexually based crimes. This is a statistic not often cited, as many would probably like to cover it up. It is true though, while reading through her examples, I remembered all the killers, most of them being extremely well known cases. All of them were committed by white, heterosexual males. I find this issue of supremacy of these males disturbing, that people feel the need to kill or attack innocent people just because they feel they are superior to others and have the “right” to kill them. She is also accurate in saying, “…the group most likely to become hooked on the drug of superiority. It’s a drug pushed by a male-dominant culture that presents dominance as a natural right” (Steinem, pg. 429). I find it interesting that males view their dominance as a natural right when they have nothing to base this off of. I am irritated that they see themselves as being above women or racial minorities and then find the need to kill those “below” themselves.
These crimes that have occurred in the past still scare me today, being a woman. I am always nervous walking alone at night, or even in my room at night, with the door locked, after hearing of men coming in through the windows. I always feel the need to check the backseat of my car when I get in it, and I don’t think that this should be necessary. Women should be able to go about their normal lives, even in dangerous areas, without being scared for their lives. I think our culture needs to get over the idea of male dominance and move toward a society without gender hierarchies.
Kimberle Crenshaw’s article was also interesting, reading about the immigrant women and their struggle to be legal citizens. I am glad that the amendment was passed at least, allowing for women to try and get out of their marriages while still pursuing citizenship. Although, I am sad to hear about the amount of difficulty these women must go through just to get a waiver. I never would have even thought that some of these women do not have access to telephones, or that their only source of information is from their husbands. I think that these women should be able to find their own sources of information and be knowledgeable on their own, so they are not taken advantage of by their husbands.
3 comments:
Although it's unacceptable that women constantly feel unsafe when in their cars, homes, or on the streets, it is definitely comforting to know that you and many others go through the same rituals that I do in order to feel secure. Finding a way to fix the safety uncertainty of women is definitely difficult though. As you said, our society has been constructed by males to push masculinity and even violence. Reading about the horrible things the murderers did in Steinem's article was very upsetting. I surprised myself, though, because when I read about the woman that had committed serial murders, I was even more appalled than I was when reading about the men. Murder is not something that should be justified by anything, especially gender. Men have no more right than women to commit this crime, even in a culture where masculinity is prevalent. Murder is unacceptable no matter who commits it.
The point you make about checking your car and such is so true. It is so sad to know that women need to always be aware and learn/memorize all these tactics for protection, when men do not think twice about what is in their car or what area of town they walk in at night. If it is truly improbable for women to not need to be this cautious, then there need to be more men that step it up and become protectors instead of offenders.
Samantha,
Just to clarify, be sure to note that Steinem’s not actually using statistics here, and she doesn’t necessarily want to argue that the majority of violent crimes are committed by white, heterosexual males. Rather, she wants to point out that a particular class of crimes – violent murders of strangers that don’t provide the killer with a tangible gain – are quite often carried out by white, middle/upper class men, and yet (and this is the important part), we tend not to acknowledge the racial/economic identities of these killers because they are part of the dominant group, and their identities are thus “invisible.”
Nice points about the Crenshaw article; this is another great example of the ways in which oppressive circumstances and lack of privilege can multiply exponentially and render certain groups of women unduly vulnerable.
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