|
|
|
|
- G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
THE CHICK GOT IN THE WAY
 Lately,
the radio and TV voices reporting constantly on the war, sound more and
more like the frenetic boasting of a partisan sport's announcer. They can
hardly contain themselves as they salivate over the total destruction
produced by the latest "bunker buster."
"WOW! There's nothing left but rubble. We got Saddam that time and probably his sons." "We own Baghdad now. Our guys are walking down the streets. Our guys are in Saddam's castle and using his bathroom." Holy shit! Their voices are filled with the same pride of performance that they use for the baseball, football, and hockey or basketball team of their choice. They love the game of war with a passion. When did war stop being a horror and become such fun? These commentators cannot contain their superiority complex as they list off the many fantastically technical killing machines that "we" have and the miserable crap belonging to Saddam. Kicking butt was never so joyously vocalized. Justified, as it were, in the name of liberation. There is a nearly complete lack of interest in or respect for the wounded, the frightened, the dead and the dying civilians or the devastation of their homes, land and property. Everything appears to be A-OK because "we" are going to remake Iraq in our own image. As we watched the scenes showing the toppling of the Saddam statue in Baghdad on TV, the commentators raved that the Iraqi people were celebrating their freedom. Surely our bombs didn't kill all the women and girls or aren't they considered Iraqi people too? And where, pray tell, did all the huge new American flags and American flag T-shirts come from? Did Rummy think we'd be fooled into thinking the Iraqis had them stored away for this very occasion? Hardly. It was obvious that the military provided the props. Every war has names for the enemy. The object is to dehumanize the people so they are easier to kill. Troops are trained that war is a matter of self-defense. They must kill or be killed. But it helps if the enemy is somehow not human, like us. So Arabic/Moslem people become "Rag Heads" or "Towel Heads". Vietnamese and Koreans became "Gooks". The World Wars named the Germans, "The Hun" and "Krauts"; Japanese became the "Slants" or "Japs". "Lobsterbacks" and "Redcoats" defined the soldiers of King George during our Revolutionary War. The Roman Legions called their enemies, "Bar-bar-ians" because their language was incomprehensible to them. We also seem to derogate the leader of the forces we are aligned against. Today it is Saddam. Horrible things are attributed to him and most are doubtless true. But by constant repetition, they serve to color and apply to all of his military. Our species dehumanizes others even when there is no war between nations or peoples. We have recently seen an example of American childish petulance, name calling and acting out just because France and the U.N. did not do our bidding.
What keeps this alive through the generations is that so many women call each other these dehumanizing names. They have joined with their oppressors to denigrate themselves just as political prisoners do the world over -- "The Stockholm Syndrome". Just recently, a horrifying story revealed years of sexual abuse and rape in the Air Force Academy. The training of officers, we are told, begins with teaching cadets to obey absolutely and unquestionably, the orders of upperclassmen. These men had no compunction of wrongdoing while getting their jollies because our society tacitly supports rape. "Chick" (and other pejorative labels) has become so common place that a husband or significant other never thinks of the person he batters or kills as a woman -- just a chick, a non-person. This same tone is set for the rapist.
2003-015
|
And
we do the same on a person to person basis using pejorative names for those
we feel are inferior to us. Referring to women as barnyard animals effectively
makes them non-human, which in turn affords the justification of bad acts
toward them.
Just
as it is for the soldier in Iraq who did not give the woman he killed human
status. "The chick got in the way," he explained. We
are told that the U.S. is bringing Democracy to the people of Iraq. In
the area of disrespecting women, the Iraqi males may have much to learn
from us.