Subjection of a group of people to violence based on their membership in that group is a clear indicator of that group’s powerlessness, be it Christians to lions or the underclass to war.
In the United States, we subject men to violence via law (the draft), via religion and custom (circumcision), via socialization and incentive (telling men who are best at bashing their heads against eleven other men that they have scholarship potential), via approval of beautiful women (cheerleaders cheering for men who play “smash face”), via parental approval and love (the parents who attend the Thanksgiving games at which their sons are battering each other), via taxpayer money (high school wrestling and football, ROTC. and the military), and via our entertainment dollar (boxing, football, ice hockey, rodeos, car racing, westerns, war movies. . . ). But North Americans do refrain from subjecting men to violence via bullfights — we feel it’s cruel to the bull. After we subject only our sons to this violence (before the age of consent), we blame them for growing into the more violent sex.
But here’s the rub When other groups are subjected to violence, we acknowledge their powerfcssness. What are the implications of calling men power/и/ when we subject men to violence? When we acknowledge a group s powerlessness, we acknowledge our obligation to help that group. With men, we blame the victim. We blame men because we have camouflaged men’s victimization by teaching men to also be the victimizer. Men’s victimizer status camouflages men’s victim status.
With women, then, we often hear that the 50 percent of the population that is female lives in fear of the other 50 percent that is male because, for example, "We never know which man will be the rapist.” We forget that men are statistically in much greater jeopardy of homicide and violence and.
therefore, the SO percent of the population that is male also fears most men because men are equally ignorant of which men will commit that violence.
Our understanding of only women’s fears leads to public monies for female-only shelters and female-only psychological support. The higher taxes mean that mostly white males take jobs they like less to earn more and die sooner to keep women alive longer
The practical result is not only that women live longer, but that white women live the longest, black women second, white men third, black men fourth. In the industrialized world, men are the new "niggers"; black men are "niggers’ niggers." This result helps us see a different relationship between the civil rights movement and the women’s movement. .