:: The Bitch Girls ::

:: Monday, November 11, 2002 ::

Resolving "Issues" Well I'm glad there's one more asshole off the streets.

I don't know if I really want to open this can of worms, but I have to say that while I'm glad this guy has been caught, I wouldn't have shed a tear had a legally armed citizen caught him. I also wouldn't have been upset had they stopped him with a bullet. I know that sounds like I'm a fan of taking the law into your own hands, but I doubt many people would disagree with me here. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe I sound like a trigger happy feminazi. It's incredibly frustrating to try and put this into words. I attempted to do it once, but it didn't work well, and I doubt it will here. (I would link it, but I am frustrated with the archives right now.) I referenced the book Gun Women before, but didn't actually include the passage. Tonight, in an attempt to put off studying for an exam in the morning, I actually climbed up to the top bookshelf to get it down.

"What sociologists Margaret Gordon and Stephanie Riger have called "the female fear" - women's pervasive and ever-present awarness of the potential of sexual assualt and the negative social and economic consequences of this awareness - certainly helps to explain why women might opt for firearms ownership."

Later on, Stange and Oyster pose this question:

"What are women to do, who are sick and tired of being typecast as hapless, childlike victims? Women, that is, who no longer want to live with 'the female fear.'"

I talked to one of the women that I recently introduced to shooting about this fear, and this question. We both talked about how one doesn't want to seem paranoid to other women, muchless men. It's also hard to convey that if one of us was armed, we wouldn't just shoot anyone walking behind us on a dark street. That delicate balance is actually easy to maintain, but when I read stories like the one above, I have a part of me that secretly wishes these people weren't walking the earth anymore. Would I actually act on that? Only if I was actually being attacked, or came upon an attack.

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:: Bitter 10:27 PM [+] ::
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