US Ignores Rising Danger of Misogyny

The gunman in this week's Pittsburgh shooting hated women, but the nation seems not to care much about the rising number of such cases fueled by misogyny, Bob Herbert writes in the New York Times. He recalls the similarly motivated 2006 slayings in an Amish schoolhouse: “There would have been thunderous outrage if someone had separated potential victims by race or religion,” he writes. “But if you shoot only the girls or only the women—not so much of an uproar.”

“We’ve seen this tragic ritual so often that it has the feel of a formula,” Herbert says. “The rape, murder and humiliation of females is not only a staple of the news, but an important cornerstone of the nation’s entertainment.” A healthy dose of introspection would do the nation—and the nation’s women—a world of good. “Misogyny is a serious and pervasive problem,” Herbert writes; that, and the ubiquity of guns, “is a toxic mix of the most tragic proportions.” (More George Sodini stories.)