Elliot Rodger's 'Retribution': An Internalised Misogynistic Perception of Entitlement to Women's Bodies.

Elliot Rodger has shot to fame after posting his story, 'My Twisted World' and various videos on YouTube about his 'retribution' of all the girls, by whom he felt his sexual advances were wrongfully rejected, so much so that it was 'criminal' and an 'injustice', and all the boys whose sexual prowess made Rodger desire a life in which he was similar.

Photo credit: www.usatoday.com

Despite his parents' concern over his deteriorating behaviour and visits by the police, who found him to be a shy and well-mannered boy, the long-term Asperger's sufferer was deemed to be a non-threat. This non-threat then successfully shot and killed 6 people in a student-based California town; his main aim a Sorority house filled with 'spoilt, blonde sluts', before ending his own life.

This triggered a worldwide response to Rodger's inherent hatred of women, and the tag #YesAllWomen began trending on social media platform Twitter, where women by their hundreds and thousands tweeted of their own experiences with misogyny and how it left them feeling. 

Whilst focus has been placed on the NRA, US politics concerning gun control and better support systems for those with mental illnesses, as well it should, I think the emphasis due on worldwide misogyny has been misplaced. Whilst a sufferer of Asperger's Syndrome; not all people with the same disease commit such felonies. Similarly, not all people who have the same innate hatred of women are sufferers of Asperger's, or in fact any mental, disease.

The self-confessed root of Rodger's anger against women (and sexually successful men) stems from the belief that he is entitled to the enjoyment of women's bodies for sexual performance. Although he briefly mentions his want for love from women and companionship from his fellow students, particularly, he highlights, during his college years, the manner in which he speaks in a YouTube video filmed in a Cali car park dictates a sense of authority and ownership over women. When Rodger is denied such ownership, when his sexual advances are rejected, he views this failure as a denial of his rights and so views it as 'criminal'. The way in which Rodger describes his fellow students' success with women is that the women are, as is their duty, giving their bodies for his classmates to enjoy; rather than any sense of autonomy or agency on the part of the female.

This is a symptom of a worldwide internalised misogyny, where in the modern day patriarchal society, the sense of superiority over women and sense of dominance over the 'lesser' gender has become the norm. 

Gender is a concept primarily constructed by culture and history. It is a qualitative construct of socio-legal meanings we attach to certain attributes and characteristics of bodies. This process of attaching meaning to bodies is the acceptance of gender-specific norms and behaviours; subscription to which indicates conformity with the hegemonizing form of social control that gender offers. Feminist theorist Butler asserts that biological essentialism can be disputed because although sex is determined by biology, gender is culturally-constructed. The very definition of woman as 'woman' is, as Moi posits, defined by men who, in turn, view the world through a patriarchal perspective. Women are paternalistically assigned their place in society by men (de Beauviour).

When Rodger's attempts of sexual encounters with women (where, as a cisgender heterosexual body, his intercourse would include the submission of the female) are rejected and he fails to achieve the heightened sense of dominance, he is left feeling lonely and confused. This sense of isolation, coupled with a misguided perception of entitlement to the women's body, and any sexual services they may provide him, resulted in such a strong misogynistic anger that he committed the acts he did.

Rodger displays a belief system based on contradicting ideologies which is typical of the misogynist. Women, both as a gendered body and to perform their gender, require possession of conflicting attributes to be accepted by society. Relevant examples of these include chastity, loyalty, innocence and obedience, alongside provocativeness and the ability to sexually please (a male). These realistically cannot all sit complementary within one gendered body, yet misogynistic spheres of society still hold high this expectation. Rodger condemns the girls as 'sluts', thereby having lost their desired sense of innocence. However, he repeatedly admits displeasure over their ability to please other men sexually, acts which he covets for himself, and through no sense of innocence can girls learn how to do this.

Rodger regards the women as 'spoilt'. To be spoilt, women would have to be under a sense of ownership; presumably here he is referring to money and gifts received from parents. However, isn't owning women and having them obey to his sexual fantasies precisely what Rodger desires? Isn't the denial of such a desire the premier reason his anger grew?

This distorted sense of womanhood, and what womanhood should mean for men, is symptomatic of a modern patriarchal society where the internalised misogynistic perspective of what it means to be feminine is possessed by almost all men and, unfortunately, some women. This upsetting fact means that the dislike of, and sense of superiority over, womankind has become so normalised over time that women view themselves as a sub-species without even realising they are doing it.

Nev Schulman, hit MTV show Catfish host, made a post on Facebook regarding the shootings and, although briefly mentioning hatred for women as a growing social issue, focused his (long) statement on how we could better progress as a society by inclusion and preventing the sense of isolation Rodger felt. Excuse me? Although I agree fundamentally that those suffering from mental distress should have better communication channels to facilitate their rehabilitation, it must be acknowledged that the ONLY cause of this tragedy is Rodger's anger towards women. Instead of feeling pity for the lonely underdog, we should feel a sense of anger that men of today feel so entitled to women's bodies that when they are denied it, they feel it only right that they can take life, to force compliance out of women. What about the families who have just lost their daughters? Women who, Rodger admits, have done nothing personally to him - they were just innocent bystanders; a front for all womankind, against whom Rodger directed his anger. 

Rodger's victims.
Photo credit: www.independent.co.uk

Yes, Nev, "[w]e ALL want to be accepted and feel desired". However, you do not possess the right to be desired. You are not entitled to women's love, body or sex. Nev's statement, although of some merit, has little credibility because it is written from a male-privileged perspective; which is precisely the problem I have been trying to illustrate throughout this article.

Instead of encouraging people, namely women, to reach out and make the stereotypical loner feel wanted and sexually-desired, how about encouraging men to respect women and their autonomy? How about educating men that women are not objects to be dominated or owned, but that they are animals of free-will and if they do not find you sexually or romantically attractive, then tough. Get over it. Dealing with rejection and loneliness is an aspect of every single person's life; women or men. No one has the right to own another person or to restrict their autonomy. The longer we view sexual engagements as ownership over women's bodies; the longer this problem will continue.