violent or dangerous actions to make up for that deviation from our culture’s characterization of “masculinity.” Masculine culture is also deeply rooted in the idea of guns and gun ownership. From the founding of this country, owning a gun has become symbolic of protection and independence, two traits revered in those aforementioned male figureheads. So sometimes, these boys who feel isolated, discouraged by society, or thwarted in love, find solace in weapons. The Columbine shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, faced bullying at school which contributed to them isolating and idolizing themselves (Klebold referred to his actions and plans as “god-like”) and creating an elaborate fantasy where they blew up the school. This is the plan they attempted to carry out on April 20th, 1999, when they killed 13 people and wounded 24 others, before both committing suicide themselves. Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland shooter, was described as “a loner” by other students attending MSD, and his obsession with guns had concerned his
adopted mother since she took him in and eventually got him kicked out of her house. Most recently, the shooter at Great Mills High School in Maryland wounded one and murdered two people: himself and his ex-girlfriend. One of the arguments against imposing greater gun control has been that the mass shooting epidemic is a mental-health problem, not a gun problem. While this is not entirely untrue, there are some obvious faults in this statement. Women are 40% more likely to have a mental illness than men, and yet 98% of mass-shooters in the United States are male. So while mental illness is what prompts one human being to slaughter other human beings, the matter and cause of that illness is much more specific and intimately ingrained in our world than we’ve acknowledged. There has to be a way our society can create a safer way for boys to understand they don’t have to turn to violence and murder to validate their own masculinity. The difference between the ways men and women experience and express emotion is learned, and it doesn’t have to stay the same for-
ever. Feminists and progressives have been gradually chipping away at the patriarchy for decades now, but it is important for everyone to realize that more than just liberated women’s rights are coming out of its destruction. The patriarchy is the root of most hot-button issues in our country today: abortion, equal pay, sexual assault and rape culture, domestic abuse, and also, undeniably, gun control. The damaging effects of male aggression and entitlement extend far beyond the harm to women. It’s harming boys as well. If we provide boys and girls with similar expectations of what perfection is—not a Barbie-shaped, complacent sidekick, and not a heroic and muscular gunslinger—so many knots in the threads of our society would begin to loosen. Gun violence and school shootings would be one of those knots slowly beginning to untangle. It will take regulations, amendments, and persistent outcry from citizens to turn over the vote on gun control, but we can’t forget that the patriarchy is the unmoving boulder in the avalanche of change on the mountain which is America.
art by zoe butler
April 6th, 2018 15