Friday, December 9, 2011

Words Matter. Pay Attention to What They Mean.

I've been reading up on this case.

The more I read about it, the more pissed off I get.

Words matter. When someone uses positive words that people have been trained to respond positively to since birth, it matters. When the media uses the word "honour" - even though it's in quotation marks - in relation to a barbaric multiple homicide, our subconscious minds try to find something humanising in the accused. Our empathy strives to find some way to excuse some of the accused's atrocity based on the fact that if honour is involved, then the accused had some sort of worthy higher purpose in mind when he or she took the life of another human being.

In this case, four human beings died. Four women - three of whom were just teens.

Four women died because they dared to have their own hopes and dreams for their lives, and they didn't allow others to dictate how they should live.

We can't blame the country this time - this happened in Canada, and the Canadian press should know better. They should know better than to allow criminals to dictate how a crime is perceived. They should know better than to provide any hint that they sympathise with femicide.

Why would you give any hint of legitimacy to such a barbaric act? Especially one based on a misogynist religious and tribal belief that women are lesser beings and violence against them is justified if they refuse to submit?

Stop calling femicide 'honour' killings. There is NOTHING honourable in these crimes, so call it what it is: murder.

And stop allowing religion to dictate how women are treated and viewed by the public.

2 comments:

  1. I think the counterpoint of the words makes it more horrific and helps people see how fucked up it really is.

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  2. I agree to some extent, but it requires the ability to separate the historical connotations of the word from its combination with the word 'murder'. It requires one to be capable of critical thought. Unfortunately, not everyone has that skill. :/

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