Laura Frankel (senior, Politics) and Sierra Dwyer (senior, History)

16

Author: 

I was dismayed by the opinion piece “Campus Violence Can be Curbed with Preventative Measures,” as it completely ignores the wisdom of the speakers who came to Oxy last month for Masculinities Week.

The author’s noticeable omission of the sex of all of the perpetrators, and assumption that undergraduate stress causes fatally violent acts is at best a sloppy mistake, and at worst a damaging justification. The gendered nature of this violence is clear from examining the events at Columbine, Wesleyan, UCLA, Virginia Tech, and most recently in Texas and Florida.

As Jackson Katz would ask, what would the headlines look like if it were women who came to school or work with shotguns to kill their peers? Let me be clear, this is not a critique of men, but rather of masculinity. What does it say that the author of this article, and society at large, assumes that men are naturally violent i.e. when they face too much stress, of course violence is the natural outcome?

If I were a man, I would be deeply offended by the way in which we as a national community take this assumption for granted. In addition, I would like to point out that in several of these school shootings/stabbing, the violence was particularly gendered because it involved issues of domestic violence against and stalking of women. The implication that this violence can be curbed with stress management is insulting and degrading to both men and women alike.

Until we examine what these acts have in common, we will continue to justify, perpetuate, and ignore their causes.

This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.

Loading

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here