Understanding Santa Barbara

A month later, America is still recovering from Elliot Rodger’s Memorial Day weekend massacre, in which he killed six people, injured thirteen others, and took his own life. Many Americans have already brushed off this shooting spree as an isolated incident, and dismissed Rodger as some crazy loner. However, it is important we not leave off on the matter so suddenly. Though his actions were extreme, Rodger’s overall attitude toward women–his feeling of entitlement to their bodies–is indicative of a strong current of misogyny on American college campuses.

Though only two women died at his hands, Rodger’s actions were driven by a rapacious sexism. “I don’t know why you girls have never been attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it,” he said in a YouTube video uploaded fewer than 24 hours before the massacre. Further investigation into his Internet history has revealed that he frequented male supremacy websites, leaving a virtual paper trail marked by prejudice. “It’s been my life struggle to get a beautiful, white girl,” Rodger posted in one online forum. He also wrote and uploaded a 140-page manifesto in which he chronicled his life-story and futile attempts to “win” a mate.

Recently, activists on several campuses have begun a dialogue on sexual violence in college, bringing this matter to national attention. After The Crimson published an op-ed from a sexual-assault survivor and the advocacy group Our Harvard Can Do Better filed a Title IX complaint against the university, we have learned that our school is very much part of the problem.

This sexual assault epidemic did not develop in a vacuum. We know where it started:  with men’s attitudes toward women.

When the modern women’s rights movement began at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, activists had to prove women were just as human as men. Fortunately, our society now views women as equal citizens. Nonetheless, we still must fight the prevailing belief that men possess some sort of right to women’s bodies.

It is no coincidence that Rodger was a college student. As an undergrad, he lived in a world where one in four of his female classmates would experience sexual assault, where few administrators would be sympathetic to or even believe their stories, where only a tiny fraction of their rapists would ever see so much as the slightest punishment for their actions. As an American male, he lived in a world where he was told that women exist for his sexual gratification, and that their rejection of him warrants a death sentence. Not every frat bro is a potential mass-murderer. Nonetheless, Rodger’s determination to deprive women of sexual choice outlives him.

As a feminist, I continue to be shocked but not surprised when I hear of things like this. The Santa Barbara shooting was a terrible tragedy that nobody could have predicted, but it is not unfathomable. In my activism these past few years, I have seen the frightening extent of discrimination, prejudice, and hate directed toward a full half of the world’s population simply because they are women. It is events like these that make my belief in the necessity of women’s rights activism even stronger. Yes, women are in possession of much more equality than they ever had at any point in history, but there is still a long way to go until we attain a completely egalitarian society. A mass murder that was so transparently fueled by misogyny, such as this one, just comes to prove it. As comforting as it would be to put our heads in the sand and pretend like everything is fine, it’s not, and it is imperative that we come to terms with that.

It would be unfair to Rodger’s victims, to survivors of rape, and to women at large if America allows Rodger go down in history as a nice guy who just snapped one day. As people who care about the welfare of society and safety of womankind, we cannot forget what motivated his actions. Misogyny kills. As college students living in a world where a quarter of our female friends will experience sexual assault, this lesson is doubly important.

As important as it is to raise awareness, we cannot simply give lip service. Rather, we must do our part to end the pervasiveness of misogyny in American culture. We have to speak up, intervene, and otherwise show that we abhor sexism and will not tolerate expressions of it in our presence. It is unlikely that one person alone will be able to erase misogyny from the world, since it is so deeply entrenched into our culture. However, if we all dedicate ourselves to calling it out when we experience it, maybe we will stop some of the other Elliot Rodgers – from those who inhabit the dark corners of the Internet to those who swagger around on our campuses – from committing further atrocities.

Talia Weisberg ’17 lives in Lowell House. Her column will appear every two weeks this summer.