I was just listening to a npr show about the guy who ran down all those people in Toronto. That he belonged to some kind of hate group against women. The theory is that they are angry with women because of rejection. And in this anger they want to kill women.
This is disturbing to say the least. How are these men getting so confused about intent of women and sexuality? Why are there groups out on line that promote this attitude?
What can be done about this?
Warning: this article is Canadian satire but it really outlines how it's confusing the media.
[thebeaverton.com]
"How are these men getting so confused about intent of women and sexuality?" Early psychological development without mature (in a truly psychological perspective) guidance. "Why are there groups out on line that promote this attitude?" Our technological advancements assist in the disturbed, distorted, warped, personalities finding each other and gaining a sense of belonging and affirming their twisted ideas. "What can be done about this?" This is really tough to answer. There is safety in numbers. Don't walk alone. Have eyes in back of your head (be swivel headed when walking). Maybe find the Incel group website and watch for members in your area. Since they hate "Chads" as well as "Stacys", exposing them might enrage them to retaliate. I don't know.
They are not thinking with their brain rather other parts.
We all experience rejection of one kind or an other and from various groups of people. How one processes such things exposes ones sanity and personality.
In short, that guy had a mental problem. Don't make it yours.
Other than that, free access to quality mental health care would be a very good thing.
It is disturbing. Some people are literally crazy. The causes are many and complex - not easily fixed.
Look at who is in the White House... He ran on racist misogyny and gives tacit approval to this sort of behavior. He clearly believes that women are property and somehow worth less than men. Toys to play with; "grab 'em by the pussy" and, "I just start kissing them". He belongs to the minority of people, both men and women, who voted for and still support him. He endorsed Roy Moore. I can't believe anyone voted for him and, frankly, women who voted for him are part of the problem.
We need to get his sorry ass out of office.
It does seem that 45 is blowing the dog whistle to White supremacist (a.k.a. spermassist) as well as any other misogynist factions (religious, Incel, corporate elite) but this happened in Canada. Oh wait! the mosque killer in Québec city posted a pic on FB with a red MAGA hat.
@Lukian Maybe not in Quebec, but in Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver (where I grew up), the US politics, Media, and Entertainment are of great interest to Canadians. The US is like a huge, unpredictable ape right next to Canada's beaver...
@shockwaverider You did not read my post to the end...
@Lukian I did. I wasn't really making my point for you. More for other Americans who don't understand what it's like to live in Canada, eh?
nothing. People that are unhinged do unhinged things. We don't give them more attention than we have to and move on. They thrive on attention.
Well, then, we must teach a course on "Why men are rejected".
The topics to be develop are:
I am a nice man so women shouldn't reject me.
I wear my lunch on top of my belt but women shouldn't reject me.
My dentist needs to re-study "How to make fitting dentures so I don't spit on the lady I am talking to"...but women shouldn't reject me.
I shouldn't take the only three hair left over on my scalp and bring them over my forehead -fan shape- and I shouldn't glue them to prevent the air blowing them out of place....but women shouldn't reject me.
Although accidents happens, the flatulence shouldn't shoot out of my ass...e at the speed of the light....shouldn't smell too bad either....but women shouldn't reject me.
I shouldn't tell her that her schooling was a waste of time since she was only supposed to marry and to have five kids....but she shouldn't reject me.
I shouldn't make negative comments about equal pay for equal job....but she shouldn't reject me.
I shouldn't say things such as "Many women get high paying salaries because they f...k their bosses....but women shouldn't reject me.
I shouldn't say that women with kids are not the best ones to marry...and that my kids are adorable...but she shouldn't reject me.
I am the youngest of five boys and my mother's favorite...but women shouldn't reject me...
I have been single for a long time; and I'll admit, sometimes I get so lonely that it physically hurts in my chest. But I would never blame others for this- no one else has a responsibility to like me, or be kind, let alone love me.
There are groups - of men, and of women, who's feelings of entitlement know no bounds. These people are selfish beyond reason. This happens with romance (or lack thereof), religion, race, economic standing, in some form or another.
Yea, I get lonely. I get sad sometimes. But anger? Anger against people I don't even know? I just don't understand. And I won't live my life that way.
I don't know how men get to this state, it is most likely some kind of groupthink, or they've been rejected by their mothers; I just can't imagine what could drive them to such perverted thinking, and then to follow it up with a horrific and grotesque act as this person did.
Something vital to human nature is missing from their psyches; they are in some way incomplete as humans. I wouldn't know where to begin to address this problem. They must feel entitled, somehow, to have female companionship or servitude...I just don't know. Yes, it's horriby disturbing.
I just read a Vice article about it: framed "toxic masculinity" as a social problem. Scary stuff.
Yes the group is called Incel. here is an article linking the cowardly killing to this group.
[nytimes.com]
I personally have been getting tons of flashback to the École Polytechnique massacre in 1989 that also very mysogynistic in nature. Back then it was blamed as a muslim hate crime against women.
[en.wikipedia.org]
There's a big f&?% cynical feeling around this story where white supremecist are dissawoving themselves from the Incel group. Very disturbing.
All of this is very disturbing to me (as a man).
Ya Grace someone posted on this today with a link to the group-pretty disgusting group. Sexual prowess group seeing women as sexual objects only.
Other post has a link to the article about the group.
Victoria its gone now-was posted by Lukian above-he must've transferred it here
Some men seem to think that a woman's body is rightfully theirs if they do something nice for her. Some think that all they have to do is be nice to a woman X number of times and she owes him sex. I don't know where this type of thinking comes from. Deeply ingrained misogyny maybe?
Well it's disordered thinking in any case because to my knowledge there's no way to drive through a crowd of pedestrians and only kill women. So I'm having none of him hiding behind some misogynist ideology. He's just using it as an excuse for his general feelings of rage and impotence.
As to how some men might be confused about this, I don't know, I suppose it has something to do with unrealistic expectations engendered by 11th century notions of romance and courtly love that we still try to make work after a thousand years of abject failure. Combined with a strong tendency to patriarchy such that the expectations and hopes of men are way more important than any that women might have in the other direction.
If you believe that women are ethereal perfect creatures who need your protection and then find that they don't appreciate being infantalized and are less than perfect, yeah, that might anger less stable people.
@Akfishlady Well if a man is invested in women, relationships and love being / working a certain way then he will keep trying to make it be something that it's not, convince himself that the Ideal Woman is out there somewhere, etc. It's the definition of madness to not accept experiential feedback and adjust accordingly but you have to remember my fellow men are relatively simple, literal creatures who tend to believe the bullshit they were raised / acculturated to (often enforced by the stern disapproval of an emotionally stunted father with his own patriarchal assumptions). Be strong, don't cry, protect her and get her a dozen roses on her birthday and she'll never argue with you or complain about your manners or be less than enraptured at the idea of being intimate with you. Doesn't that about cover the concept? I think a lot of guys think that way. Sad but true. Particularly now several generations into a world where women have their own property, career aspirations, etc.
Pop culture, particularly music and movies and advertising, perpetuate this stuff ... idiocies like owning an impressive car or other proxies for display plumage will attract comely women who will throw themselves at your feet ... when we buy into stuff like that why do we wonder that we're confused and disappointed? And why some people go off the rails and over the cliff?
I wish I knew the answer. I have spent most of my adult life prying dumb ideas and crazy expectations out of my head -- religious, cultural, relational, the works. And it still keeps coming out. By the time I figure life out, it'll be over!
I take some hope though from my daughter and her husband who are raising their three boys to reject the standard-issue role models and stereotypes. I'm very impressed with the early results.