As a gamer, I get to hear a lot about how violent we are as a culture and how it's my fault. And it makes me angry, frankly, on multiple levels.
The most basic, though, is this. You bet we have a culture of violence. But it's not, despite tragedies in the news, a culture of homicide or a culture of firearms death.
It's a culture of sexual assault.
Let's start with the numbers. We have no idea how many sexual assaults are committed, but we do know that they're massively underreported to the police: Estimates vary, but they're usually from 75% to 95%. So, applying the best case scenario, here, we have a number of 145,993 sexual assaults committed, multiplying the FBI's reports against that 75% underreporting figure.
Against women alone. In one year.
Just for a little contrast, that same data estimates there were 14,612 homicides in the US, a crime far less underreported. So, best case scenario, after decades of feminism, hard-working efforts to stop sexual violence, and increasing awareness of the problem, we still have a sexual assault rate ten times our homicide rate and the federal government has absolutely no idea how many men are being sexually assaulted because it doesn't track that data. And this is the best case scenario. We can put computers in pockets but we can't reach people to understand that you have no right to the bodies of others?
This isn't to say that homicide or mentally ill people with easy access to guns isn't a problem, but to be frank, at the best of times our culture glosses over sexual assault as something that happens to women and that anybody who isn't a weeping white woman had coming. This is not the best of times.
But if you're really worried about violence in our society and its effects, why don't we start talking about the problem that stays with us no matter how hard we try to push it away?
Your right, but many women and men live in a culture of violence. For some they grew up in families where this is the norm. Congress has passed up a bill called the Violence Against Women Act. One state and soon another one will pass a bill that if a woman who is raped gets an abortion she is destroying evidence. Women are losing control and rights over their own bodies. We have politicians that want to ban abortions and birth control. Pretty soon rape will become legal because after all men can not control themselves due too testosterone. We see violence against women in video games, in movies, hear it in song lyrics. The men who are supposed to protect us instead pass laws against us. I thought men were supposed to be our protectors?
Women are losing their rights equal pay for equal work has not been passed. Instead states enact crazy laws such as in Iowa where a woman can be fired for being too attractive. Because men can not control their attraction for a beautiful assistant or employee and he may cheat on his wife. Again men who are out of control and women are made to suffer. We need more men with common sense and bravery to stand up to these politicians.
For the record, men CAN control themselves. The idea that an erection turns you into a werewolf is a myth. Any rapist chooses to be a rapist. Full stop.
I get what your saying and yes men can control themselves. But why is it that these crazy laws are being made against women? Why is it men are not allowing women to control there bodies? Politicians who are against abortion and birth control. Why are men not enacting the Violence Against Women Act? Why are men against equal pay for equal work? Why are men coming up with crazy laws such as the one it's okay to fire a woman base on her attractiveness? What causes this? I didn't mean to offend you I am just asking what the problem is and how do we solve it.
It's because many politicians are out-of-touch with their constituents. With just a few exceptions, politics are for the wealthy elite. Since great wealth is sometimes a corrupting factor (remember that study a year or two ago that established a link between deficits in empathy and wealth?), you have homogenous opinions in the senate and house. Politicians hardly represent the average male's point of view.
Thank you for your response and your absolutely right. They don't represent the average male's point of view. Too much corruption and greed. Time and time again you see many men who were decent fall into the trappings of power and wealth.