Assassination; Another Gift of Masculinity?

A clear pattern has emerged in every recent attack on American soil, from the Oklahoma City Bombing, Columbine, Bailey High School, 9/11, the Amish School House Attack, Virginia Tech, the Fort Hood Shooting, and even going as far back as the attempted assassination of Ronald Regan.  And the assassination attempt on Rep. Giffords has not deviated from the pattern.

The pattern is so impossibly pervasive that we hardly even find it worth mentioning anymore.

It's almost as if we don't even notice it.

All of these murderers were men.

We can claim that each of these killers were insane, that they were deprived, and that they were the result of violent rhetoric on the right or the left, but how can we ignore that they were all men.

How likely is it that not one of these horrendous attacks would be perpetrated by a woman?  Assuming gender equality, half of these attacks should have been carried out by women, right?  If women are just as good as men, then women are just as terrible as men also.  What about American Masculinity makes it possible that each one of these attacks was carried out by men?  What about Masculinization makes it possible that almost all violent crime in America is committed by men?

Since our first interactions, little boys are trained to fight.  We are given G.I. Joes while our female peers are given Barbies.  We are playing toy guns, first person shooters, and football from elementary school onward.  If we don't do these gender appropriate games in preschool or elementary school, we are under threat of alienation or violence (for more on the violence of masculinization see the MANifesto in one of the early sections of this blog).  My experience was so violent that I have a hard time believing that there are places where boys who are not appropriately masculine are merely excluded, but some people tell me that is the case and I will not question their experience.

The tragic attacks on Rep. Giffords were not a freak occurrence, but part of a trend that we have been ignoring at our own risk.  Masculinization is, at least partially, a violent process.  Masculine violence demands a feminine victim, a victim who is beneath the masculine perpetrator.

There is good news.  We need only to break away from traditional gender.  Easier said than done, but still...