Cand e vorba de crime impotriva femeilor, se pare ca desi suntem in 2006 nu s-au schimbat prea multe de acum 30 (sau 100) de ani. Politia, presa, si majoritatea publicului nu gasesc nimic ciudat in a dezumaniza victimele si a trata violenta ca divertisment, iar crimele nu sunt adresate si rezolvate mai eficient. Se stie ca primul mars “Reclaim the Night” din Anglia s-a organizat in 1977 ca protest fata de o serie de omoruri cunoscute ca “Yorshire Ripper Murders”, si in special fata de faptul ca politia nu facea destul pentru siguranta femeilor si tinea sa deosebeasca “prostituatele” de “victime inocente”. Acum ca a aparut o situatie similara si 5 femei au fost deja omorate in Ipswich, Suffolk, MB, femeile sunt din nou indemnate sa nu iasa seara pe strazi. Este singura “solutie” si masura preventiva oferita de politie pe moment. In acelasi timp, felul in care se vorbeste despre victime (in principal ca “fete” si “prostituate”), sau detalii despre cat de “dezbracate” erau cand au fost gasite si atentia cu tente pozitive care i se da criminalului nu face decat sa dezumanizeze victimele si sa glorifice violenta.

Citand-o pe Twisty de la I Blame the Patriarchy:

“Ipswich spree killer: obviously dominated by women”

Ipswich’s murdering psycho has been so obligingly villainous, the media have promoted him, in quaint British tradition, to ‘Ripper’ status. Men murder women all the time (about 11 times a day in the US alone), but ‘Ripper’ is the pet name reserved for a special class of male murderer who, in the popular imagination, is particularly evil, brilliant, fascinating, ruthless, predatory, depraved, cop-taunting, and of course, hooker-hating. He also has a grippingly seedy life history (”a loner who never fit in”), one that tabloid pop psychologists can modify into a reassuring, explanatory ‘motive’, or, even better, into a pyschokiller narrative revealing to a prurient public explicit, lingerie-ripping details of woman-hating violence.*

In a departure from Rippers past, the Ipswich killer doesn’t mutilate. He wins the exalted ‘Ripper’ crown in part because of the stunning dispatch with which he ‘works’ — he is, it is noted unfailingly, and with a sangfroidesque blend of awe and admiration, the fastest serial killer in British history — but mostly because all his victims appear to have been female sex workers, an important prerequisite for Ripperdom.

The Ipswich killer’s upgrade from random violent schlub to a mythic personage capable of waging “a campaign” means a concomitant downgrade for his victims. These people are demoted instantly from human women to ‘prostitutes,’ from ‘prostitutes’ ** to ‘vice girls’. From there it’s just a short hop to ‘heroin addicts’ and finally, to the lowest form of life imaginable, ’single mothers.’ Their first names are always used as if they were children. Tabloids, as Guardian columnist Joan Smith notes with dismay [in her article “Prostitutes deserve as much sympathy as any murder victim”], even allude to their hair color (“blonde Gemma”). It’s as though they were hotties in Hustler rather than murdered women; no report omits to describe the women’s corpses as ‘naked’ or ‘having been stripped.’

Why celebrate the murderer and dehumanize the victims as fetish objects? Because the public is enamored of the delusion that only nutcase criminal masterminds hate women enough to murder them, and that prostitutes more or less have it coming to them.
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* The Sun’s ‘top criminal psychologist’ speculates that “the maniac [has a] history of being dominated by women.” Funny how every single woman on the planet has a history of being dominated by men, yet the world remains puzzlingly bereft of crazed chicks rampaging around on tabloid-quality murder sprees.

Dar de ce ne-ar surprinde ca acestui criminal i se gasesc deja “circumstante atenuante”? Jack the Ripper este considerat un subiect fascinant, despre felul in care a mutilat si omorat femei se vorbeste cu mult interes si un minim de compasiune – mai ales ca si atunci victimele erau prostituate! “The Yorkshire Ripper”, care a omorat cel putin 13 femei, a fost lasat de curand sa viziteze locul unde se afla cenusa tatalui sau.

Iar in presa romaneasca stirea despre omorurile recente poate fi gasita prezentata de parca ar fi vorba de o noua ecranizare a istoriei lui Jack the Ripper: “Jack Spintecatorul s-a intors: Dupa 118 ani, prostituatele britanice sunt in pericol din nou” (Ziua, 12 decembrie 2006) – un articol pe care InfoPortal.ro (“Indexul stirilor din Romania”) il indexeaza la sectiunea de “Divertisment”!

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Zilele acestea se incearca pregatirea unui Reclaim the Night ca raspuns la situatia din Ipswich.