Perhaps you have read the recent story in an Australian newspaper (SMH) about five teenage boys who raped a seventeen year old girl and filmed it on their mobile phone. This isn't the first story like this, and it is unlikely to be the last. What hit me with this story is the incredible lack of respect the boys have for this girl (or any). They get her drunk, they take her to a bedroom, they rape and otherwise molest her, they laugh at her, egg each other on and film the incident, and they toss her onto the front steps of her home without some of her clothing.
What is going on? I'm not sure... is it testosterone run wild? Have people become so used to seeing and hearing about inhumane acts that kids have embraced that immorality? I can't read about the various "wars" in Africa without hearing about the rapes that occur and the incredible brutality (using guns to physically rape) women and the physical and longterm damage that does to a woman.
We find ourselves in a world where lopping off a person's head is commonplace. This doesn't happen just in the war zone, however. Yesterday I read about two men who beheaded a seventeen year old boy and bowled with the boy's head.
Hello?????!!!!!
I can understand the mentality in one sense, because the various "powers that be" use their religious beliefs to justify atrocities. Our overtly "christian" president Bush appears to have no problem killing countless people (for whatever reason he chooses at any given moment). I'm sure he prays for them. Islam does the same in that they justify suicide bombs and beheadings as the will of Allah.
There are many explanations why the teenage boys came to rape and humiliate the girl. We can blame it on the media, on the internet, on the breakdown of the family, on childhood abuse and neglect, and so on. It sickens me, however, to hear a boy's grandfather blame the victim and provide excuses for the boy. Accountability?
How much responsibility belongs to the boy's family (especially good ol' grandad)? How much to the boy(s)? Society? Media? Internet?
It's hard to be optimistic. Are we all "going to the dogs?" I wish we would - they are far more sensible and less brutal than humans.
It's just so sad.
With love, Judi
Thursday, April 5, 2007
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2 comments:
this is heartbreaking. Do you think that males in Australia are more aggressive than elsewhere? In general, what is their attitude culturally, towards women...on a good day?
I don't think Aussie men are more aggressive, it is just a smaller population here, so you hear more about the bad stories. It's hard for me to generalize about Aussie men, but so far, they seem typical in that they are varied - all types, just like everywhere else - the good the bad the ugly. I just see a trend toward depersonalization - it's not a person being attacked, but a thing. Thank you for your comment. We don't get many. :) judi
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