We are in the age of equality for people of all races, age, gender, and sexuality; however, women seem to continue to get pushed to the side when it comes to the way we’re treated and viewed.
I’m by all means saying I’m a feminist, in the sense that I believe that women and men should be treated equally in all aspects, and gender inequality issues as small as dress code in public schools have me standing on a soapbox in an instant. In society there will always be the misogynistic pigs that believe they’re entitled to women and so righteously think that women owe their attention to the “superior gender”, but Elliot Rodger took it too far.
On his proclaimed “Retribution Day”, Elliot Rodger went on a murderous rampage in Isle Vista, California after supposedly leading a life of loneliness and rejection from society and the female population. Rodger believed that he was the alpha male and that women were responsible for his said loneliness and virginity at the age of 22.
Sure, you can argue Rodger’s sanity, but are these not ideals stemmed from gender violence culture generated by the world we live in? Women should not have to hesitate in rejecting a man for their own personal preferences in fear that they will be shot in the street like the victims of Elliot Rodger. The idea that females owe men anything, or that men owe women anything is deranged.
Women are constantly encouraged to cover themselves up and refrain from having sexual relationships to avoid having an undesirable reputation or offending someone, but what about men? Men are praised for these things. No one questions a man wearing a sleeveless shirt or texting a girl for “pics.” This is the society that is being bred, and Elliot Rodger is only the result of our demented creation. Why are we promoting this behavior? Why do we blame his psychosis and act like that is an excuse?
Elliot Rodger felt so strongly that he was entitled to the considerations of the female gender, and when he believed he was being denied that acceptance and attention, he attacked because he thought he was being wronged. He believed that women were inferior, shallow, and needed to be controlled by men because they were “animal-like.”
This mentality makes me sick. If Elliot Rodger were so mentally ill, he wouldn’t have been able to carry out the killing spree he had been planning for so long. People have tried to make his mental illness the excuse for Elliot’s actions, but it’s an explanation for the reason he acted out and why others who share his views don’t.
Yes, I said others, as in other people who think the same way as Elliot Rodger, but don’t go out and try to perform mass genocide on the female gender. Elliot is only a reminder of the gender violence so many women experience everyday. Women deserve the right to say no. Men should not feel that they are entitled to women. It’s no one’s job to fulfill your sexual advances.
In the words of victim Christopher Michaels-Martinez’s father “It’s almost become a normal thing for us to accept this. It’s not normal…life doesn’t have to be like this.”
