Misogyny, #yesallwomen, and the role of the church

The shooting that rocked California last week raised questions about treating the mentally ill and why there are so many semi-automatic weapons on our streets. But what caught the nation’s eye this time around was that the shooter made clear his motives: Twenty-two-year-old Elliot Rodger hated women. He wrote a manifesto announcing his intention to reap vengeance on women for denying him the sexual attention he believed was his entitlement.

Each mass killing scares me. But my response to each of those killings was to shake my fist and write to my representatives pleading for sensible gun laws. This one is harder, because, as Victoria Weinstein points out, Rodger’s actions bring to the forefront the pervasiveness of “rape culture and the myth of the ‘random psycho,’” a climate in this country that consistently devalues women: their lives, their agency, their worth.

Following the killings, a hashtag spread on Twitter: #notallmen. Not all men are misogynists. Not all men are bad. In response, another arose, and spread: #yesallwomen. With more than 1 million tweets and growing, #yesallwomen gathers the testimonies of women who have experienced harassment, abuse, rape or other sexual assault, or simply the burden of living in “a rape culture.”