What Made Sept. 11th So Tragic?

On this September 11th memorial let’s consider Catharine MacKinnon’s book Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues. Catharine MacKinnon, a Minnesotan, is an international lawyer at The Hague. Her background is impressive enough. However, last fall I heard her speak at the University of Chicago and I can attest that she is even more impressive in person.

“MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School.[3] In 2007, she served as the Roscoe Pound Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.[4]MacKinnon is a highly cited legal scholar.[5][6] She has frequently been a visiting professor at other universities and regularly appears in public speaking events” (Wikipedia).

In Part Four of her book,, entitled “On the Cutting Edge,” she unmasks the narrative of the lie of September 11, 2001.

“Every other day, as well as this one, men as well as women are victimized by men’s violence. But it is striking that the number of people who died at these men’s hands on September 11th, from 2800 to 3000, is almost identical to the number of women who die at the hands of men every year in just one country, the same one in which September 11th happened. Women murdered by male intimates alone could have filled one whole World Trade Tower of September 11’s dead. This part of a war on women in only one country, variously waged in all countries, is far from sex-equal on either side” (italics author’s, 261).

“Compare the response to September 11th with excuses for doing nothing about violence against women. . .  Will it be said that some individuals are just violent, so nothing can be done/ Will terrorism be seen as cultural, hence protected? Will the United States throw up its hands when it learns that Al Qaeda, like some pornographers and other sex-traffickers (sex their religious as well as their business) is organized in (what for men are) unconventional ways? Violence against women is imagined to be nonstate, culturally specific, expressive acts of bad apple individuals all over the world that is so hard to stop. Terrorism, which is all of these, is said to be so serious that there is not choice but to stop it, while seriously addressing threats to women’s security is apparently nothing but a choice, since it has barely begun” (269).

Here’s the bottom line. She notes that the attack on September 11th wasn’t considered serious and tragic because people were killed. “Women are killed every day and there is not a similar outcry or mobilization of resources. It was considered serious and tragic because powerful, white males were killed. Powerful white males became fearful for their own safety” (italics author’s, 275).

“ The fact that Al Qaeda is not organized into a nation with armies and territory did not stop this international response before it started. No one argued that the bigger Al Qaeda is, the less can be done about it. Yet the fact that male dominance is not organized as a state, but like Al Qaeda is literally transnational and pervades the world, is used to keep male violence against women largely unopposed in the international system” (268).

“ . . . international law still fails to grasp the reality that members of one half of society are dominating members of the other half in often violent ways all of the time, in a constant civil war within each civil society on a global scale – a real world war going on for millennia” (266).

“When the photographs of American soldiers sexually humiliating Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison surfaced, the fact that identical acts are routinely committed against women (and some men) in pornography was typically mentioned, if at all, to excuse the crimes, not to indict the pornography. The connection was not lost on one Iraqi man who was abused by Americans in prison. ‘They wanted us to feel as though we were women,’ he said, ‘the way women feel, and this is the worst insult, to feel like a women’” (273).

“The photos, mild by pornography’s standards, were routinely referred to as pictures of torture, yet calling pornography pictures of torture is usually derided as an extremism comparable to calling violence against women a war” (273).

“ It is hard to avoid the impression that what is called war is what men make against each other, and what they do to women is called everyday life” (274).

Her words should shock us into reflection and out of our romantic notions of patriotism and patriarchy. Let’s remember the victims of 9-11, but let’s not forget thousands of women who die every year in this country and even more around the globe – at the hands of men – husbands, fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins and grandfathers.

You may also like Patriarchy: Abusive by Design and Resisting Patriarchy.

Resisting Patriarchy

Resisting patriarchy. Some ways that both women and men can resist patriarchy:

Political action to end world slavery of women and girls.

Work to change the legal system so that “equality” doesn’t mean treating women the same as men. Women have different needs than men, especially with regard to pregnancy and children. Those needs must be accounted for.

Work to provide support networks for prostitutes – the victims of enslavement typically since childhood – and arrest the perpetrators, the johns and pimps.

Mandate that both women and men must take time off for family care so women are no longer penalized at work for caring for children or parents.

Learn how, even with affirmative action, huge wealth continues to be unfairly transferred from women to men at work. Seek to end practices of nepotism and collusion that allow this.

Support women-owned businesses and services whenever possible.

Be accurate in speech. Insist on gender inclusive language; humankind (instead of “mankind”), women and men (not simply “men”), mail carrier (not “mailman”), etc.

Speak accurately about things as they really are. For example, acknowledge that prostitutes are the victims – not the criminals – in illegal prostitution.

Acknowledge that fear for their safety means that anywhere in the U.S., women alone are not safe – after dark or during the day. Attackers are men.

Re-train women and girls not to blindly hand over their authority or trust to men in positions of authority – whether they are doctors, teachers, pastors, etc.

Most of all, education – especially for women and girls who are often denied psychological, emotional and monetary support for college in this country and basic education in other countries. Education is a human right.

What other ways? Tell us what works for you.

Patriarchy is Violent

Lately I’ve been thinking about patriarchy. It is so embedded in our culture that we don’t consider the level of violence required to maintain it in our corporate, educational, governmental and religious institutions. Oppressing half the population (women) requires constant, ongoing violence.

Many feel that because of the advances women have made over the past 40 years – patriarchy is no longer an issue. Think again. Who had authority and power in government, educational and religious institutions 40 years ago? Mainly men. Now, who has power today? Mainly men. Nothing has changed. Today you can count the number of women CEOs in the Fortune 500 companies on one hand. Shocking considering women have been working in corporate management for over 40 years. Patriarchy is alive and well and deeply entrenched in boardrooms, on the golf course, and in “good ‘ole boys” networks.

How is the violence of patriarchy perpetrated? This violence can be physical. Thousands of women are raped, beaten and killed each year just in the U.S. alone. Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen has calculated that at least 100 million women are missing in the world’s population. As Catharine MacKinnon notes, “This is violence – genocide – on a massive scale” against women by men.

But the violence against women and girls happens in other ways too. Violence can be emotional, psychological and spiritual. This kind of violence, while not visible physically, can be much more damaging and long lasting. This kind of violence is soul-killing.

And what about the men and women who promote patriarchy? Are they violent too? Just because they may be parents, employees, political leaders, corporate leaders, educators or pastors doesn’t exempt them from colluding with, being culpable for and committing the violence of keeping men in power. No matter how charming or nice they appear on the outside, those who collude with the status quo of patriarchy in families, schools, business or churches are definitely not nice where it counts – on the inside.

I recently read this quote from Upton Sinclair,

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on not understanding it.”

Patriarchy; Abusive By Design

Let’s be clear, patriarchy (pater arché or “father/men rules”) is abusive by design. Anytime one group, in this case men, hold power over another group (women) it is abusive. Mature adults do not need other adults to tell them what to do, how to behave, what to believe or what to think. When one group (men) believes they have the right to do this – it is abuse. It doesn’t matter if it happens in the board room, classroom, bedroom or worship space. When men believe they have the right control other adults they are being physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually abusive.

Because our culture is patriarchal, women are trained from childhood to believe that they should hand over their power to men. This happens in many ways, some overt, some subtle. Regardless, this kind of inculturation restricts their freedom and prevents women from being truly human. It also impoverishes men who then never experience the riches and gifts of women freely choosing their actions and vocations.

Understand this – it takes a lot of threats, secrecy, violence and abuse to maintain a system of patriarchy. Everyday, women are raped, beaten and killed in order to maintain patriarchy. Women are psychologically, emotionally and spiritually abused in order to maintain patriarchy.

It’s no accident that sexual abuse occurs frequently in family, corporate, educational and religious institutions. They are profoundly patriarchal – so abusive by design. Punishing individuals will never solve the problem – though that is necessary. Neither will swapping women for men in positions of power. The actual system must be changed so that power is shared.

Some may claim that “someone needs to be in charge.” In a family situation this is often assumed to be the husband or father. Not so. Many couples and groups function well using consensus. Other groups implement various types of representative democracy. What typically doesn’t work very well is any form of patriarchy, monarchy, hierarchy or dictatorship. These are the very breeding grounds of abuse by design – creating an unequal power dynamic. Love, by definition, requires mutuality. Love between adults necessitates that power is shared.

You may also like Our Deepest Fear and “Nice and Quiet.”

Legal Nomads.com

Photo LegalNomads.com

One excellent website that came out of the mediocre book in the previous post was this one: LegalNomads.com; Where culture, food & travel intersect. It’s the website of a young woman who left her job as a lawyer in Montreal to travel around the world, trying foods one country at a time, one meal at a time.

Her site is well documented with interesting links and resources. The photography is beautiful and the way she records her experiences is fun and entertaining to read.

Whether she is Christian or not I don’t know – but her life exemplifies the idea of Christain mission – engaging the world and allowing it to change you. She is entering one culture after another and immersing herself in its people, language, art, food, music, smells and soaking up the experience. This is what mission is about. Opening ourselves to others and to the world.

I’ve put her on the blogroll here at InnerPacific.