I was watching some ridiculous show the other day that showed the top ten worst mass murders. And now, thinking back, almost every single one of the murderors was a white, pretty priviliged man. One of the murders, known as the texas tower sniper, was done by Charles Whitman (picture below).
Charles Whitman was a student at University of Texas and a former Marine. Looking at his picture, he is a white male in his 20s. He killed 16 people, shooting from the tower at the University with a sniper. This reinforces Steinem's article. The typical "hate crime" is caused by heterosexual white men who kill for no "economic or rational gain." Similarly, Whitman was grew up in an upper middle class family. He was a superior student and had lots of friends. He seemingly had a decent life.
It's scary to realize that no one is really publicizing the fact that these men are committing "supremacy crimes" because of their "impossible expectation of dominance to which they've become addicted." This needs to change. If we focused on this fact, perhaps things could get better and some of these crimes could be prevented. As Steinem says, sons need to be raised like daughters!
Your post is very interesting, Maria. I looked up Charles Whitman on Wikipedia after reading your post and even there it seemed like the authors were making excuses for his behavior. They kept emphasizing how the divorce of his parents and his father's anger and control issues played a significant role prompting his behavior. For example: "There were underlying dysfunctional issues within the family that escalated in 1966, when his mother left his father and moved to Texas. The elder Whitman was an authoritarian who provided for his family, but demanded near perfection from all of them. He was also known to become physically and emotionally abusive." I know that during this time, divorce was uncommon because people looked down upon it, but this situation sadly is a lot more common these days and all those kids don't end up murdering people, not to mention their mother and wife, "out of love to prevent them from suffering." Wikipedia also cites his court-martial and less-than-ideal relationship with the University of Texas as stressors that might have triggered his outburst. Well, skinning a deer in his shower isn't exactly acceptable or appropriate - I don't care how much he loved hunting, but most hunters don't do that. Of course that is going to cause him trouble. Plus he got court-martialed for gambling, possessing a personal firearm on base, and loan-sharking - all things a solider should know not to do. Finally, the cherry on top was that a glioblastoma - an aggressive brain tumor - was found during his autopsy, which may have played a role in his twisted behavior. If he had such bad headaches, why didn't he go to the doctor and get treatment? Getting headaches is not a 'shameful' medical condition unlike others which society brands as such like mental illnesses, STDS, etc; if he already saw a psychiatrist - which he did at UTexas - which was a lot worse on the social stigma meter stick, why no doctor visit? So what excuse holds up? It is really unbelievable how people make excuses for others' inexcusable behavior even in such a place as a Wikipedia article.
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