Elliot Rodger: Blaming Women When Patriarchy is the Problem

BroadBlogs hits the hard stuff in discussing one of the true evils behind the Isla Vista shooters actions: patriarchy itself.

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Women have control over which men get sex and which men don’t. Feminism is evil.

And so Elliot Roger blames women for his own problems — and for problems created by patriarchy — as he justifies his sad, horrifying, screwed up human hunting spree.

But then, if everyone else weren’t to blame, he would have to feel bad about himself.

Ironically, patriarchy — and not feminism — is the source of the particular problem he cites above. 

The reason women are the sexual gatekeepers is because patriarchy allows men to have sex with as many women as they want. But women will be punished if they are not selective. When they don’t gatekeep they become “sluts” and their social standing drops. And all of that is repressing: When you constantly dampen you sexuality, it dampens itself after a while.

So under patriarchy women are punished for being sexual and then some anti-feminist becomes enraged that women don’t have sex with him.

Feminism actually promotes the opposite idea, insisting that women and men both have an equal right to be sexual.

Next, in a brilliantly frustrating move, patriarchy pressures men to gain status by having sex.

But Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) like Elliot (he had subscribed to several sites) wouldn’t want to attack patriarchy. And so they twist their logic to make women and feminism the enemy.

When Roger isn’t blaming feminism, he complains that people, generally, won’t do things that he won’t do, himself.

People don’t reach out to him? Well, he doesn’t reach out to them, either.

The most beautiful women don’t have sex with him? Does he make any effort to meet women who are less beautiful than he is?

Meanwhile, a lot of guys get their sex ed from porn — Elliot began consuming at age 11. But porn is a poor teacher. It presents female sexuality as a stereotype of male sexuality. In porn, women are all hot for sex and just looking for a guy to service them. They will have sex with pretty much anyone. “Except me!” Those bitches!!!!!

Now enter the mythical hookup culture which spreads the lie that everyone is having casual sex with everyone else. “Except me,” Elliot thinks.

Turns out, only about 10% of students want to do that sort of thing.

And since patriarchy demeans the feminine, it latches on to some pretty negative traits that women aren’t interested in embracing. So if a guy can’t feel like a man because he doesn’t have a lot of sex or isn’t good at sports, he may turn to violence, says University of Maryland sociologist, Philip Cohen.

Ninety percent of the targets of school shootings are women.

Why? Here are a couple of reasons:

On the one hand, women may be symbolic of what men feel they can’t have. All those beautiful women out there, and you can’t have every one of them.

But also, groups that are traditionally demeaned are typically targeted as scapegoats. Listen to any hate radio and it’s all about how awful women, minorities, and LGBT are.

A lot of MRAs are hostile toward women, blaming them for their problems. And then they wonder why women go for louts instead of them. In Elliot’s words:

I don’t know what you don’t see in me. I’m the perfect guy.

Yeah. It’s a mystery.

Think women are your problem? Take a look at patriarchy. And take a look in the mirror.

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This post originally appeared on BroadBlogs.

Photo by Tom Zijlstra/flickr.