Media Coverage Misses the Gender Issues at the Heart of Mass Shootings
Media Coverage Misses the Gender Issues at the Heart of Mass Shootings
11/21/2022 by Jackson Katz
Guns are woven deeply into cultural narratives about American masculinity.
A man views rifles during the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention on May 28, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Brandon Bell / Getty Images)
Amidst outpourings of heartache, grief and outrage about the latest gun massacre, why are so few voices in mainstream American media talking about the gender issues at the heart of these incidents? As the U.S. experiences yet another mass murder, what is so hard about sayingout loudthat the overwhelming majority of these killings are done by boys and young men, and then going a little deeper and asking why? Since the spring of 1998, media coverage of these shootingswith just a few exceptionshas followed an embarrassingly predictable and superficial script that imposes gender neutrality on a highly gendered phenomenon. Its remarkable how many gender-neutral terms commentators come up with to describe the perpetrators of these heinous crimes: shooter, 18-year-old, loner killer, terrorist, student, teenager, young person, armed individual.
People think its so obvious the shooters are young men that theres literally no point in saying so. In that sense, gunman is internally redundant; everyone knows that man follows gun. The one gendered term people do often use is gunman, a word whose very constituent partsgun/manoffer a clue as to why gender-neutral terms are so popular on this topic. People think its so obvious the shooters are young men that theres literally no point in saying so. In that sense, gunman is internally redundant; everyone knows that man follows gun. One way to think about the near-invisibility of gender in this debate is to consider the word gunwoman. The awkward but revealing dictionary definition of this uncommon word is a female gunman. The need for such a word barely existsbecause in 98 percent of mass shootings, the murderer is a man.
Brad Fowler of San Antonio, Texas, lights up candles at a memorial dedicated to the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on June 3, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed on May 24 after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire inside the school. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
. . . . . .
The two academics have developed a remarkable data base of school shootings dating back to 1966. They found that school shooters typically have four things in common:
They suffered early childhood trauma.
They were angry or despondent over a recent event, sometimes resulting in suicidality.
They studied other shootings online.
They possessed the means to carry out the attack.
But like most analysts, the authors didnt highlight or examine gender as something almost all the shooters have in common. They did mention it in a subsequent paragraph, in which they suggestedhelpfullythat schools can adopt curricula focused on teaching positive coping skills, resilience, and social-emotional learning, especially to young boys. Then they buried the most critical data point at the end of the paragraph, in parentheses***********(According to our data, 98 percent of mass shooters are men)and said nothing further about it. *********
. . . . .
But as long as men, young and old, have easy access to high-capacity killing machines at the same time their society furnishes them with endless heroic masculine narratives about redemptive violence, the next tragedy is always going to be just around the corner.
https://msmagazine.com/2022/11/21/gun-violence-men-mass-shooting/
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)niyad
(113,306 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)niyad
(113,306 posts)jimfields33
(15,801 posts)They failed in getting help or punishment to them.
niyad
(113,306 posts)last year.
Irish_Dem
(47,058 posts)niyad
(113,306 posts)Irish_Dem
(47,058 posts)niyad
(113,306 posts)Irish_Dem
(47,058 posts)We accept it as normal. And that nothing can be done about it.
niyad
(113,306 posts)Irish_Dem
(47,058 posts)And woman have been taught it is normal, just the way of the world.
niyad
(113,306 posts)Irish_Dem
(47,058 posts)It appears highly threatening to males to have to share power, control and money with women.
Globally and here in the US, men are cracking down hard on women.
Women are being pushed backwards.
Here in the US no reproductive control means no education, no decent jobs.
In other parts of the world women are being held captive in their homes.
Women will be jailed, tortured, murdered for noncompliance to patriarchal rule.
niyad
(113,306 posts)Irish_Dem
(47,058 posts)Here in the US, women will be forced to die tortuous deaths via government ordered refusal to provide medical care.
Others will be jailed by the government.
In Ukraine women were systematically raped, tortured, murdered by Russian soldiers at the direction of Putin.
In the Middle East women will be raped, tortured, murdered by government decree.
Then of course, we have the usual violence against women by men that is indirectly encouraged or tolerated
by governments.
This will continue until women understand their place in the patriarchy.