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Male entitlement kills

In the past few months there has been a series of events involving men or boys who killed because they didn’t get something they wanted.

That “something” would be a woman’s attention. With that said, it’s time to discuss a major factor: the somewhat touchy subject of male entitlement.

Now, before you say anything, let me just share a few stories.

Maren Sanchez, a sixteen year old girl, was killed by a boy after she refused to go to prom with him.

In Stockton, California, a man allegedly shot at three women who refused to have sex with him and his friends.

And in New Delhi, a man stabbed his female friend 30 times with a pair of scissors after she rejected his marriage proposal.

But possibly most disturbing were the recent actions of Elliot Rogers, who killed six people when he set out on a rampage best described in a quote taken from a video he made: “If I cannot have women, no one will.”

What do all the incidents, and likely all these men, have in common? Male entitlement, stemming from misogyny.

One thing all of these men, as well as many others, fail to grasp is that women do not owe them anything. Not sex, not interest, not even a smile. Nothing. Men do not have a right to female attention, and they don’t “deserve” access to women.

Because guess what? Women are human beings. They aren’t required to like you, or even acknowledge you. If more men realized this, we would not only be able to avoid incidents like those, but women, and to an extent men, would benefit.

As a matter of fact, some men probably don’t even realize that they act that way, due to portrayal of men and women in media and in society.

Television and movies, even books, show the leading man as “getting the girl,” even if she isn’t interested in the beginning. Porn even plays a role, merely because it shows men having sex with conventionally attractive women without having to do anything, and portrays women in an incredibly negative light.

However, try as some might, society still clings to gender roles, and to the idea that men are supposed to be dominant and that women should be submissive, leaving some men at odds with how to deal with a woman who will defend herself against his unwanted advances.

In the past few months both men and women have been killed because men thought they deserved female attention and because they couldn’t handle the sting of rejection. And even though it sounds dramatic, in light of recent events, people have to face the facts: male entitlement kills.

 

Written by Amanda Leslie

Amanda is a senior and the opinions editor for the MCSun. (Obviously the best section.) Her hobbies are sleeping and listening to music. She likes to pretend that she could be an FBI agent when she grows up.

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