By TAN EE LAINE
brats@thestar.com.my

ELLIOT Rodger exposed himself as misogynous by posting videos before his rampage, talking about why he did not have a girlfriend even though he was “sweet” and the “supreme gentleman.”

Misogyny, if you aren’t familiar with the term, is the feeling of hatred towards women or girls. And Rodger, who only a few days ago embarked on a deadly killing spree in Santa Barbara, California, wielded that emotion in its deadliest fashion when he cut short the lives of six innocent people.

In the chilling videos, he spoke about women as if they were trophies that he deserved, instead of respecting them as human beings.

After that unfortunate incident, Twitter users responded with the trending hashtag, #yesALLWomen to share their thoughts and experiences on misogyny. This hashtag questions how society teaches men to think they deserve women, even if it’s to the fairer sex’s psychological or physical detriment.

Many women who’ve been raped or harassed before shared their stories, intimating how difficult it is to speak up about it because of prevalent male-centric apathy.

Truth be told, society has a tendency to discriminate women for their sexuality. Rape victims are often blamed for their misfortune because they were deemed to have been “asking for it”. Of course, assumptions are flippantly made that these women must have dressed skimpily or were not careful (conservative?) enough.

Is it really the victim’s fault that they were raped? What is our society doing, blaming women for the way they dress when rape happens? Instead, we should teach people to respect each other and look out for each other’s well-being.

The #yesALLwomen hashtag has addressed a lot of concerns and fears that women face on a daily basis, such as taking public transport alone at night and having to worry about their safety. As a woman myself, I can relate to most of the issues that have been deliberated on Twitter. Plainly put, when a woman is harassed, she fears for her safety because men are generally stronger.

Although the hashtag received largely positive feedback, there has also been a backlash, and some even responded with the hashtag #notallmen, in retaliation.

I think we need to understand, the hashtag #yesALLWomen is not meant to imply that women are better than men, but to stress that women want to be (and should be) respected and be able to stand up for themselves.

Former United States president Jimmy Carter once said:
“The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violation on earth.”

I think what women want is not necessarily to be treated like queens, but to simply be accorded decency and respect from men and women alike. That surely has to be a prerequisite in this day and age.