ITEM A man entered a classroom at the University of Montreal and killed female students. The incident made headlines throughout the world as an example of woman-hating. The Canadian government spent millions reeducating men in their attitudes toward women. At about the same time, a Chicago woman (Laune Dann) shot five elementary school boys, poisoned food at two fraternities, burned down the Young Men’s Jewish Council, burned two other boys in their basement.13 shoe her own son. and justified her murder of an 8- year*okJ boy by claimng he was a rapist Not a single headline or article summary in the index to the Chicago Tnbune pointed out that every person killed or wounded by the Chicago woman was a boy.14 No government spent millions reeducating women on their attitudes toward men.
ITEM In the riots resulting after the Rodney Kmg verdict, police officers killed ten people. All ten were men.,s Had all ten been blacks or Hispanics or women, would it have gone unnoticed?
Why was the man as victim invisible? In pan because the social expectation that the man — not the woman — loots the store is also invisible. Did fewer women steal because women are more moral? Not quite. First, thousands of women also looted — but none were killed by police. Second, few men bring home a stolen TV if they know their wife won’t watch it. Third, when blacks and Hispanics looted after the Rodney King verdict, both political panics sensed it was at least in pan because the poor felt less hope and had less power. But the fact that men did most of the looting led no one to conclude that men felt less hope and had less power.