Women at RiskBob Herbert, New York Times: One of the striking things about mass killings in the US is how consistently we find that the killers were riddled with shame and sexual humiliation, which they inevitably blamed on women and girls... Dr. James Gilligan [says] 'What I've concluded from decades of working with murderers and rapists and every kind of violent criminal, is that an underlying factor that is virtually always present to one degree or another is a feeling that one has to prove one's manhood, and that the way to do that, to gain the respect that has been lost, is to commit a violent act.'
Life in the United States is mind-bogglingly violent. But we should take particular notice of the staggering amounts of violence brought down on the nation's women and girls each and every day for no other reason than who they are. They are attacked because they are female... We would become much more sane, much healthier, as a society if we could bring ourselves to acknowledge that misogyny is a serious and pervasive problem, and that the twisted way men feel about women, combined with the absurdly easy availability of guns, is a toxic mix of the most tragic proportions.
Globe and Mail: 'Male co-workers, clients and supervisors appear to be using harassment as an 'equalizer' against women in power, consistent with research showing that sexual harassment is less about sexual desire than about control and domination,' wrote the American researchers, whose long-scale longitudinal study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association...
'By objectifying women, it strips them of any power or prestige that they hold in the workplace,' Ms. McLaughlin said... [She] said that mostly, men harassed their bosses in order to impress other men at work... In the workplace cases, 'it's not that they're trying to get the woman fired or get her to quit her job; it's about proving your manhood and masculinity to other men.'
Al Jazeera: The savage methods being used by street gangs in their fight against each other are now being used against women. Gang-related violence has increased sharply here in recent years, amid an increase in drug-trafficking activity. But while the murder rate cuts evenly across both sexes, women's groups point out that females are killed simply because of their gender... Odilia Sanchez's niece was raped and killed by three men hoping to rise through the ranks of their gang. She was only three years old. Her father found her dead, naked and badly beaten, after searching for hours...
The pattern of violence includes sexual assault and physical torture before the women are killed and their bodies dumped in public places... Those who dare challenge the power of men in Guatemalan society often pay with their lives and only two per cent of crimes against women are solved. Adela Chacon Tax was tortured and stabbed to death by a man whom she refused to date. Her body was thrown in a ditch in Escuintla.
Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post: An already staggering epidemic of rape has become markedly worse since the January deployment of tens of thousands of poorly trained, poorly paid Congolese soldiers, with people in front-line villages such as this one saying the soldiers are not so much hunting rebels as hunting women...
'After reaching an area, the soldiers are taking everything there as the spoils of war, including the women,' said Honore Bisimwa who works with a non profit group, Olame Center... 'They take them like property.'... 'If soldiers meet you, they will rape you,' Ngalya said. 'They don't fear anything.'... 'In this territory, men take women like an instrument that doesn't have any value.'...
'The truth is like this,' said one officer, sitting under a shed and sipping a powerful local brew. 'What is making the soldiers do these bad things is their treatment by the army. Imagine, one can of sardines?! And you send a soldier away for 10 years?! So, I'm hungry, I'm in need of a wife and I have no money' to pay for a prostitute... 'If I see a woman walking on the road, and I love her, I will take her. I will help myself.' The lieutenant, who did not give his name, is in charge of teaching the soldiers about human rights.
