gun toting feminist
If you feminists are all about empowerment, why don’t you all carry guns?
Imaginary Pot Stirrer
I can’t speak for all feminists but I don’t have any guns for two reasons. First, I don’t hunt because I don’t want to eat any of the kinds of meat one can shoot in my region. Second, I have little kids. I know some people think having a gun around is a great way to protect little kids from potential threats but I see them as threats in and of themselves. My kids are not responsible enough to be trusted with loaded weapons in their environment. NRA’s Eddie Eagle might try to tell me differently, but Eddie hasn’t met my kids and he has an agenda that I don’t particularly like. So, no guns here.
One of the more unflattering things I see hurled at feminists is that we all have a victim mentality. Apparently, our concern with not being abused, raped, harassed, and treated unfairly in the workplace translates to a passive wimpiness, an open and welcoming attitude that invites all the things we fear to happen to us.
If you’re a certain type of thinker, a gun might seem like the perfect solution to this willing-victimhood. Get a gun, ladies! No one will scream “Ooooo, dat ass!’ as you walk by if there’s a pistol shaped bulge beside dat ass. No overly entitled white frat dude is going to roofie your drink if you’re packing heat at the Sig Ep mixer! Your boss will totally capitulate to your family leave request if you point a gun at his head!
Because all of that is a rational solution to pervading social problems, right?
While it may be tempting for feminists to deputize themselves and become a Badass Broad Brigade, taking out inequality one bullet at a time, that’s not actually feminism. It’s vigilantism. That way lies George Zimmerman. It’s dangerous and ineffective.
Contemporary American feminism is in a position to look not just at problems but at their causes and identify solutions that go all the way to the root. Yes, we could all carry guns to deter rapists but we could also study the phenomenon of rape, learn that most sexual assaults are committed by known assailants, and realize that the problem can’t be solved by shooting your date when he stops taking no for an answer. The better solution is to start educating all kids about sexual consent when they’re small children. That means cutting off anyone who says “Billy’s pulling your pigtails because he likes you, Susie!” and instead saying “Hey, Billy. Susie told you to get your hands off her and you have to listen. NOW.” Does’t that seem like a better way than having Susie pop a cap in Billy?
In the words of Sting, “Nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could." Like civil rights, feminism must further its goals through peaceful means. We cannot change minds by putting a bullet in someone’s brain.
