Sexual frustration isn’t an excuse for violence

Elliot Rodger killed 6 people and injured 13 others over the weekend because he hated women, and he subscribed to the entitlement afforded to him because of his race, gender, and class. That is all.

Naturally, I’m losing my shit over people defending Rodger’s actions and those calling him mentally ill. It is safe to assume anyone who decides to solve any problem with violence let alone mass violence they aren’t using the same operating program the rest of us are using. That said a lot of people with mental illness are not violent and do not harm anyone.

Obviously, I read Kimmel’s Angry White Men, last week, which is particularly poignant given Rodger’s mass shooting. Kimmel’s book includes a chapter on mass acts of violence committed by angry white young men who feel slighted because their entitlement has been challenged. That is exactly what happened here.

So what exactly was the slight that Rodger felt? Oh, his right to women’s bodies was violated. He is owed sex and love from women because…he’s a white dude? I don’t know I’ve never understood this line of logic. This feeling that you are owed anything but a shove down. I guess my class is showing.

Rodger wrote a “manifesto” about his plight. It is full of hate particularly directed at women and people of color. He also has tied to Mens’ Rights Activists (MRAs) and Pick Up Artists (PUA), which is completely evident in the language he uses in the manifesto. He also released videos including Elliot Rodger’s Retribution. Some of the lowlights:

“For the last eight years of my life, ever since I’ve hit puberty, I’ve been forced to endure an existence of loneliness, rejection, and unfulfilled desires. All because girls have never been attracted to me. Girls gave their affection and sex and love to other men, but never to me.”

The entire thing is all about his entitlement.  Women, are just objects to have as status symbols.

“You girls have never been attracted to me. I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me. But I will punish you all for it. It’s an injustice, a crime, because I don’t know what you don’t see in me. I’m the perfect guy. Yet you throw yourselves at all these obnoxious men. Instead of men. The supreme gentleman. I will punish all of you for it [laughter].”

Well, I’m glad he states he’s a gentleman because judging from his actions and associates (MRAs) I would never have put it together.

“On the day of retribution, I am going to enter the hottest sorority house of UCSB [University of California, Santa Barbara], and I will slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up, blonde slut I see inside of there. All of those girls that I’ve desired so much. They would have all rejected me and looked down upon me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance towards them. While they throw themselves at these obnoxious brutes. I’ll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you. You will finally see that I’m the superior one. The true Alpha Male.”

The points from the passage above that are particularly striking because of his presumed victimization. For example, “if I ever” strongly implies the rejection is in his head. Thus, the women are just a stand in for his assumed rejection. Additionally, we get to see once again his view that women are just objects to possess.

We know that MRAs and PUAs encourage violence against women through their rhetoric. They are hate groups. They hate women. There are a lot of articles about Rodger now. It has also come out that in addition to hatred for women, Rodger hates interracial couples and is racist.

Of course, more misogynists have come out saying that what Rodger did was wrong, but hey what do you expect if women aren’t perpetually sexual available for any white man who demands it. The actual quote is “more people will die unless you give men sexual options.”

Finally, I want to end with a truly depressing situation: there was another mass shooting targeting women over the weekend. But there was also a hashtag created #YesAllWomen. These are two articles with some of the best. The hashtage is an interesting read and very depressing, but there is some power in saying it; it being the violence and misogyny focused on women everyday, yes all women everyday.

Kickstarter Apologizes

Below is the full post Kickstarter made after their decision not to pull the PUA Kickstarter that was pushing a pro-assault agenda. The project was funded reaching many times over its initial goal. Casey Malone brought this to everyone’s attention after pulling the rapey comments the creator, Ken Hoinsky, made on Reddit (I know you’re all shocked). The Kickstarter page was pretty innocuous, but I’ll confess I didn’t watch Hoinsky’s video because…gross and creepy. Also, I’m familiar with the Pick Up Art (PUA) mentality, which is rooted in entitlement and privilege. Entitled to women’s time, attention, and bodies so I have no interest in anything that these people have to say.

Malone brought Hoinsky to the attention of well, Twitter, the feminist blogosphere, etc. Jezebel had a few great pieces on all of this. Kickstarter after receiving an onslaught of tweets and people reporting the page decided they should respond by doing nothing. On Reddit, Kickstarter responded directly to Malone’s post with,

“This morning, material that a project creator posted on Reddit earlier this year was brought to our attention and the public’s attention just hours before the project’s deadline. Some of this material is abhorrent and inconsistent with our values as people and as an organization. Based on our current guidelines, however, the material on Reddit did not warrant the irreversible action of canceling the project.

“As stewards of Kickstarter we sometimes have to make difficult decisions. We followed the discussion around the web today very closely. It led to a lot of internal discussion and will lead to a further review of our policies.”

This response, while not exactly awesome, I can understand because current policies and the comments were made on Reddit not Kickstarter. My immediate thoughts went to, well how are you changing your policies? The skeptic in my thinks the project making just over $16,000 (8 times the goal) might also have something to do with it since Kickstarter takes a percentage.

Regardless, Friday, Kickstarter released a post apologizing for their lack of response. I'm kind of optimistic about this (ignoring the assumed Reddit/libertarian backlash) because it is an indication that online mobilization can yield results.

We were wrong

Dear everybody,

On Wednesday morning Kickstarter was sent a blog post quoting disturbing material found on Reddit. The offensive material was part of a draft for a “seduction guide” that someone was using Kickstarter to publish. The posts offended a lot of people — us included — and many asked us to cancel the creator’s project. We didn’t.

We were wrong.

Why didn’t we cancel the project when this material was brought to our attention? Two things influenced our decision:

• The decision had to be made immediately. We had only two hours from when we found out about the material to when the project was ending. We’ve never acted to remove a project that quickly. 
• Our processes, and everyday thinking, bias heavily toward creators. This is deeply ingrained. We feel a duty to our community — and our creators especially — to approach these investigations methodically as there is no margin for error in canceling a project. This thinking made us miss the forest for the trees.

These factors don’t excuse our decision but we hope they add clarity to how we arrived at it.

Let us be 100% clear: Content promoting or glorifying violence against women or anyone else has always been prohibited from Kickstarter. If a project page contains hateful or abusive material we don’t approve it in the first place. If we had seen this material when the project was submitted to Kickstarter (we didn’t), it never would have been approved. Kickstarter is committed to a culture of respect.

Where does this leave us?

First, there is no taking back money from the project or canceling funding after the fact. When the project was funded the backers’ money went directly from them to the creator. We missed the window.

Second, the project page has been removed from Kickstarter. The project has no place on our site. For transparency’s sake, a record of the page is cached here.

Third, we are prohibiting “seduction guides,” or anything similar, effective immediately. This material encourages misogynistic behavior and is inconsistent with our mission of funding creative works. These things do not belong on Kickstarter.

Fourth, today Kickstarter will donate $25,000 to an anti-sexual violence organization called RAINN. It’s an excellent organization that combats exactly the sort of problems our inaction may have encouraged.

We take our role as Kickstarter’s stewards very seriously. Kickstarter is one of the friendliest, most supportive places on the web and we’re committed to keeping it that way. We’re sorry for getting this so wrong.

Thank you,

Kickstarter

What this really comes down to is a serious lapse in judgment on Kickstarter's part. They are attempting to right it after the fact, but had they pulled the project when they were alerted to the issues then this would be unnecessary. I'm not super impressed with Kickstarter lately. Between the whole Garden State thing and this. There has to be a better way to fund projects.