5th graders conspire to rape & murder classmate

From Jezebel (which is a feminist blog):

Precocious Fifth Grade Psychopaths Conspire to Rape And Murder Female Classmate

Callie Beusman

Two fifth grade boys, aged 10 and 11, have been ruled competent to stand trial in juvenile court for conspiring to rape and kill their female classmate, and possibly murder other students as well. They were arrested after a classmate saw them playing with a knife on the school bus and reported it to a teacher.
Normally, state law specifies that children between the ages of 8 and 12 do not have the mental capacity to commit crimes; however, the pair exhibited an absolutely horrifying and soul-crushing awareness of both the nature and consequences of what they had planned to do. In addition to the knife, they had brought a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol (taken from an older brother) and ammunition to school and had hand-written a seven step plan outlining the events leading up to the horrific crime. Both explained to a local police officer that they'd been plotting for two weeks. When asked if he knew that murder was wrong, one boy responded, "Yes. I wanted her dead."
In the mental capacity hearing, a psychologist testified that one suspect planned to rape the female classmate while the other stood guard. The boy knew that rape meant "having sex with someone when they don't want to," and, according to the case's prosecutor, Tim Rasmussen, he understood it as "a display of strength and power — not sex." When asked why they wanted to brutally assault and take the life of their classmate, one of the boys explained, "She's rude and always makes fun of me and my friends."
There are no words to describe how abjectly depressing, terrifying, and infuriating it is that we live in a world in which a pair of fifth graders is capable of planning — and arming themselves for — a potential mass murder, in which two boys aged 10 and 11 have already learned to value girls' lives, bodily integrity, and dignity so little that they have no qualms about violating and murdering a girl for being "rude." While I understand that they're too young to fully appreciate the gravity of what they had planned, that doesn't diminish the atrocity of the fact that a 10 year old was able not only understand the gendered power dynamic inherent in rape, but also to plan to use it as a punitive measure against another child.
It should be unimaginable that someone so young could internalize such an extreme, hyper-aggressive, and violent understanding of rape culture. Tragically, it is not. Children and adolescents are constantly exposed to the insidious ubiquity of patriarchy and rape culture, in which violence is eroticized, male sexual agression is affirmed, and assumed male access to women's bodies is normalized. Lacking the discursive tools to understand that these things are not "just the way the world works," they can easily absorb misogynistic values, which they re-circulate and reinforce through seemingly "mild" actions such as slut-shaming, victim-blaming, homophobic remarks meant to denigrate boys who exhibit feminine qualities, body shaming, etc., as well as through committing sexual harassment and assault. All of this behavior reflects and reinforces sexual attitudes that are toxic and degrading to women and men alike. Thus, although this case may be the most sickening, severe case of an adolescent absorbing and acting upon misogynistic values in recent memory, it's far from an isolated incident.
"Colville boys, 10 and 11, will stand trial in murder conspiracy" [The Spokesman-Review]
"Fort Colville students plead not guilty to conspiracy to commit first degree murder" [Krem.com]

Fifth Grade Psychopaths

I saw this article online this morning and it really bothered me:

http://jezebel.com/5993282/precocious-fifth-graders-conspire-to-rape-and-murder-female-classmate

Apparently, these 2 FIFTH GRADE boys (ages 10 & 11) were caught on a bus going to school with a knife, a gun, and a rape/murder plan. They confessed to the police (after being caught) that they were going to rape and murder another fifth grade student--a girl--because she had made fun of them and their friends and this made them angry. The police were very shocked, and as the story states "state law specifies that children between the ages of 8 and 12 do not have the mental capacity to commit crimes." I would say that before I read this article I would have believed that but it is obviously not true anymore. The police also asked the boys if they understood that rape is not about sex but that is it about a display of strength and power, and both boys said that they fully understood that! 

LIKE WHAT THE FUCK?! As the author of the article wrote "While I understand that they're too young to fully appreciate the gravity of what they had planned, that doesn't diminish the atrocity of the fact that a 10 year old was able not only understand the gendered power dynamic inherent in rape, but also to plan to use it as a punitive measure against another child." I, personally, never knew that young kids knew what rape was/what it really means, but I guess that children are more and more seeing images of it on television and in movies. The author wrote "Children and adolescents are constantly exposed to the insidious ubiquity of patriarchy and rape culture, in which violence is eroticized, male sexual aggression is affirmed, and assumed male access to women's bodies is normalized." It is just like we talked about in class, with Mackinnon's article on sex. Everything in our scoiety--especially sex--it centered around this assumed male access to women's bodies. So much so that now even little kids are starting to understand it at a younger age. It just makes me sad because I feel that as a woman (and just as a person in general) that there is hardly anything that I can do to change this mindset. How do we keep our children from becoming like this? How do we teach people that others are not there simply for sexual access? 

Boy Scouts breeding the right or wrong?

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/28/16739587-boy-scouts-close-to-ending-ban-on-gay-members-leaders?lite

Above is a link to the news article pointing out progress on the policies of the Boy Scouts of America.

The BSA is supposed to be an organization which promotes personal integrity and Christian values.  In this country that can mean different things to a lot of people.  However, I am happy to post this article in light of some progressive thinking on behalf of one of the more conservative organizations for youth men in this country.  While the policies aren't perfect (whose are?), I am often troubled in identifying with the organization whose values don't reflect mine but that I am also a member in high standing with the organization.

As an Eagle Scout, many of the most defining aspects of my youth were based upon the policies and requirements set by BSA nationals.  In these days I often question whether or not to tell people of my rank and of my achievements because I'm embarrassed of the Scouts' policies on gender discrimination.  Now that progress is being made towards recognizing peoples' equality I am becoming, again, more open with my endorsement of the organization.

What do you all think?  I won't be offended.  Do you think we should continue to run youth programs like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts that clearly limit members based on gender but that also have the intent of performing charitable works and good deeds and character development?

Pink is OFFENSIVE???

Today in my lab I was learning all about the joys of making a good scientific presentation (fun...).  When suddenly the professor, who certainly is no bigot, says something that catches me completely off guard.

He had brought up several power point slides with things going wrong on them when he pulls up one that looks fine to me and asks the class what's wrong with it.

After the standard silence following a science professor's question to the class, he says, "Pink font is offensive!  Never use it in your presentations!"

I am left asking myself how a color of all things is offensive to something as (supposedly) objective as science.  Clearly pink has a less than subtle feminine implication in our society and so I wonder immediately if this is a feminism issue.

After later prying at the issue, apparently he was yelled at by a grad school professor of his that pink was offensive in science.

WHY? HOW? WHAT!?  Does anyone have any idea why this could be even remotely true?

Oddly enough, I have a power point assignment which I have to turn in to him.  I was thinking about making the whole thing pink and seeing if he flunks me on the assignment (he wouldn't).  Any thoughts?

End Human Slavery

There is a group on campus working to get enough signatures to so that, by law, the government will have to read the petition.

Here is the blurb that was posted on Facebook:

What if you, your daughter, niece, mother, aunt, or any female in your life believed they were making a perfectly harmless decision yet were sold into sex slavery? What would this mean for you? What do you think it would mean for them? Most never make it home. Put an end to it. Shine a light on it. Stop it. End it. Sign the petition and help Hanover bring this issue to light!

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-provisions-end-human-slavery-and-trafficking-within-united-states-and-worldwide/hR4Wx16W

Aging

Here is the trailer for this documentary that I was watching on HBO, called "About Face." Its about supermodels, and how they got started, what they think about modeling, etc. All of the models who were interviewed were popular model who are all older.

http://youtu.be/bmFhOLGL204

The most interesting thing that I noticed during the documentary was that the models felt that it was something GREAT to grow older and to age. Some were also into plastic surgery, but most were not keen on it. Jerry Hall, one of my most favorite models (who is wearing a leopard print top in the video), said that she felt that it is a privilege to grow old and it is something that should be celebrated! She said that she was so happy when she turned 50 because she felt accomplished--because a lot of people do not get to live that long and she had. She said "People are living longer, they are healthier longer, they are having sex longer. Why we shouldn't we be allowed to age? And why shouldn't we be respected for it?"

I have to agree that aging should be respected, but as another model pointed out--when you get older you are left out and you don't count anymore in our society. It is our fear of being left out and not having anymore fun that makes us afraid of aging--when we really should be happy and feel accomplished.

Do you feel that we celebrate aging in our soceity? Or do we feel that only the young and the beautiful count for anything?

Plastic Surgery

I recently watched a documentary about models on HBO, and it had me thinking about plastic surgery (which was discussed a lot in the doc). Some of the models felt that plastic surgery was okay if you were doing it for you, and if it made you feel better about yourself and enjoy life more. However, one of the models said that she sometimes feels like "Oh look! A new surgery to fix [whatever]! Maybe I should check that out" but then she thinks to herself "Is this just a fad? Is this really something that I want to do, or do I think it sounds interesting because I have grown up in a society that is all about looks?"

I have to agree with this model that it is hard sometimes to really look and evaluate why you want to do something? Is it just a new fad that will die out soon, or do you want to fix a problem that you feel is weighing you down and making you unhappy? It is also hard at times to understand what is the male gaze pressuring us to do and what is it not? This same model said that she sometimes thinks of new procedures in a questionable way, like "Is this the new foot-binding? Why is this procedure so popular? Is it something else that society is pressuring women to do that they don't really need to do?"

I think that if you have some sort of issue with something about your body, and it is making you depressed/anxious/unhappy, then by all means get it fixed if you want. But I also feel that we should look at these procedures that we are getting done to ourselves and REALLY think about why we are getting them done. Is it for us? Is it because we want to look like [insert celebrity name here]? Is it because society tells us that we need to look a certain way, and so we feel inadequate if we do not?

If we take the time to really think about what we are doing, then we might actually stop (if we are doing something for society) and begin to look at ourselves in a more accepting light.