Last week, there was a scary story I heard about and it was also published in the Lincoln Journal Star. To sum it up, a woman was driving home from her friends house and the car in front of her slammed on their brakes. The woman hit the car in front of her and the car behind her slammed into her car from behind. The driver in the car behind her approached her car to apparently get her information. The woman had a bad feeling about the situation and realized she was trapped between the cars. She realized she was set up and had to get away. She somehow got out and was driving back to her friends house that she came from. The cars followed her recklessly and when she got to her friends house they ripped her out of her car and started to beat her. When her friends tried to help, they pointed guns at them. They continued to beat the woman on the side of the house.
Besides this being an awful, sad story, it was surprising to me. I guess I found myself being biased by gender. When I first heard this story, I guess I just assumed it was men. In the end, after I read the article, I found out that it was a group of woman that did this. There are scams going on now in Lincoln that involve this woman gang.
Did anyone else automatically assume these attackers were men? I guess I'm ashamed of myself because I assumed that. How do you guys feel about this as a whole?
15 comments:
With just reading the headline I also just assumed that the group that attacked the woman would be male. I feel that this group of women was probably a group of more masculine type females. This display of violence would tend to perpetuate the idea that to be masculine you are violent and unable to control yourself. I think that this was a terrible thing to do no matter what gender a person is.
Journal Star Article
http://journalstar.com/articles/2008/04/07/news/local/doc47f9582fc1f42788909932.txt
Wow, what a scary story. My only question regarding this story was whether or not this gang knew their victim at all, because this sounds pretty random. I was definitely surprised at the end of your post because yes, you would assume that men would do this since more men commit acts of gendered violence than women. If this gang knew the woman then I think the story makes a little more sense. We all know about the forms that women’s violence comes in, and I believe that the majority of the time women tend to use verbal or nonphysical ways do deal with their hurt/pain/aggression. I would also ask how old these women are. I would assume that this kind of action would come from a younger group of girls, mostly because they seem to be more reckless with an “I’ve got nothing to lose” attitude.
So why then, did this group of women decide to attack? Maybe it is due to the way they were brought up. Maybe they didn’t have strong role models as children and therefore didn’t form specific ideas about what it means to be feminine (Cognitive Development theory). Maybe instead they made the conscious decision to act more masculine. Maybe they realized that’s where power lies, and that power is embedded in physical violence.
It will be interesting to see what develops from this story, like whether or not these girls are tried or just let go. If they do go to court it will be even more interesting to see what their sentences are. I have a feeling, the consequences won’t be very harsh. Will they strike again? Should we be on the lookout for this gang? Should we be worried? Maybe after they’ve instilled fear in everyone, they will even the playing ground and women will start gaining more power.
That’s a very unnerving story. I assumed the group of attackers were male as well. I definitely have a gender biased view of violence since I read articles about vicious attacks and just assume males are responsible. I would agree that the women involved are probably very masculine. I certainly can’t see women from the crocheting club getting together to torment Lincoln females at night.
I also wonder if the victim knew the attackers? It’s even more disturbing to imagine a group of women driving around looking for random women to attack.
I also assumed this. I don't think it's shameful to make such an assumption though, since violence against women is very gendered and is mostly men being the attackers.
I think that everyone here has not gotten all of the facts in the story right, it was not guns that were waved in anyone's face, it was one gun, which cannot be found. They were all women, but they had been out celebrating one of the girl's birthdays (her 22nd) that night, not driving around looking to attack someone randomly. The stories in the paper said that she was tapped from behind, not slammed between two cars. While I am not defending the actions of the women in the story, I think that it seems there is a game of telephone happening here, where everyone is getting a part of the story. My biggest question is why didn't the girl who’s car was hit and was eventually assaulted, call the police when she got hit, or was afraid, why did she call her friend??? My first call would have been to 911. While the basics of the story are still unnerving for Lincoln, Nebraska, I do think that we all assume that it would be men assaulting someone anywhere it took place. Although last week also, 8 people were arrested for the beating of a girl in Florida, the only 2 men in the group served as lookouts, they didn't do the actual assault.
We do look at men to be the more aggressive gender and are surprised when it is a women or women in this case, funny how you seem to see that when women are involved it is usually a group, it seems that it is a pack or mob mentality and wonder if this would have happened if there would have been just one woman in each car?
I have a feeling that alcohol may have fueled the events.
Annonymouscommblogger380 I am calling you out. Why do you assume that because these women beat up somebody that they are a "more masculine type of females" Its not masculine to intentialy beat or assult anybody, it's not even human.
Now I will admit that I initially thought that men were responsible for the assult. I believe this comes from the statistics, but the statistics also show that men don't commit every crime.
I understand that men are responsible for a large majority of the assult and violence crimes against women. This is NOT a masculine characteristic! Its not even a human characteristic! I don't know how to label violence. Maybe it is a mental disease, but what I do know is that it really burns me when violence gets labled as a character trait for men!
Although men have historically beeb more violent, I think it is ridiculous to assume that women are incapable of horrendous acts, with even more severity in my opinion that the girls were commiting violence on their own gender. Its such a strange phenomenon to have a group of oppressed individuals such as women or even minorities, commiting violent crimes against one another.
There is a video by the rock band Prodigy where a faceless person is shown doing cocaine, sexually assaulting girls, starting fights with men in a club, throwing up and drinking excessively. Throughout the whole video (which has some mild nudity but most of the assuaults and other potentially offensive behavior is edited) the viewer assumes its a man, but in the end, it is a woman who has perpetrated all the crimes and is just as dirty, gritty, psychotic, drug-addled and violent than any man might be. It makes you self-reflect in the end, mostly because you are forced to confront your own bias to gender. The song and video is titled "Smach my bitch up" which ill admit is extremely offensive, but in the context that it is a woman who is "smacking her bitch up" it becomes oddly less offensive, which is very odd.
I'm all for equality, and that means the bad stuff too. Women can rob banks, shoot guns, assault people, etc. If there is any debate as to this, i have included a video of Patty Hearst, a young teenage girl who became a bank robber with the people who abducted her (later, authirities found out she willingly left with them, and was running away). Regardless, the video surveillance shows a shocking image of female criminality.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ad6s0gUgiwc
I also thought this was done by men, however I don't really feel bad about it. History is full of men committing acts like this. These women are on a power trip. Forgive me for making assumptions but these women were probably hard core feminists trying to prove that crimes aren't just done by men, women are capable of doing it too because they are capable of doing "everything" men can. Sad, but I would guess this is what they were thinking.
I have to agree that I too automatically assumed that the group that assaulted the woman was a group of men. I look at the video we watched on Tuesday and take a lot of the issues covered in the movie and relate them to why I, along with others, assumed that the group taking part in this horrific action were men. We see men with the so called "mask" we were introduced to through the movie and can only see that such actions that the woman in Lincoln experienced as those that a man would take part of. This mask includes characteristics that are strong, in control, athletic, tough, etc. These characteristics that are brought on by men fill a hole of acceptance to fit into society. However, what are women trying to fulfill by taking part of these destructing actions upon other individuals, especially other women, such as the Lincoln incident? Are women in society beginning to display a "mask" of their own?
Because of what we have learned in class this week, it is clear that we as a society have been groomed to assume those responsible for the crime are men. I think that if we all pay more attention to the media we will find that it is becoming more common for women to also be guilty of such crimes.
This is so scarey! I agree with you all. I wonder if the victim knew her attackers and if it happened for a reason. I have to admit that I assumed the attackers were men. I feel as if I may be brainwashed by gendered stereotypes as well. I have grown up terrified of older creepy looking men, even though I have never been physically or sexually assaulted. I guess I blame this fear/stereotype on the media. It always seems as though movies perpetrate creepy, scraggly, old men as sexual abusers. It also treats men as physically and sexually abusive.I feel bad for the men that have been affected by these stereotypes. However, in reference to my commment about being afrai of creepy old men, statistics show I have more of a chance being raped or assaulted by an acquaintance than a stranger. I guess we are all affected by these stereotypes but it is important that we learn about this and learn from it to become more competent men and women.
this story really shocked me as well. The fact that this attack was random and so brutal was just so awful. I definitely agree. I was also kind of ashamed, but when I first heard about this story I was very shocked to find out it was by women. I had also assumed it was men.
I think that most people were probably shocked to find out that women did this, just because it is uncommon behavior for women. Again, I don't want to assume to much, but I agree with one of the other bloggers that said this probably was a reflection of how these women where brought up.
I'll admit that I thought the perps were men. I guess when I hear the word gang I think of men only. I just don't think of women being gang members, especially in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Also, becasue the nature of the incident with the woman being trapped in between two cars led me to believe it was men. It just doesn't sound like "typical woman" behavior.
I think the reason we assume it was a group of men is because (like the video we just watched) masculinity is linked with violence. As children, boys are the ones who are more physical and competitive. Society expects men to be a bit rowdy and women to be more conservative, so it's just unexpected for the perps to be women.
Interesting, yet sad, article.
Wow!! I can't believe that the attackers were women!! I thought they were men when I was reading the post as well. This is a scary story and it makes me mad that as a society we as women always need to be on guard. Just like the story about the cheerleader who was beaten, it doesn't matter who it is doing the beating, the woman is usually the one BEING beaten. It is really sad that our own gender turns on one another. As women we should be fighting not each other but violence against women as a whole.
I think whenever we hear about violence such as this story, school shootings, or beatings in high schools we always assume the perpetrators are male because we naturally think that men are socialized to bemore violent and aggressive. I think this is demonstrated in the Tough Guise video. Even the fact that other bloggers have suggested that the female attackers must be masculine in some way signifies how entrenched our views of masculinity and femininity are.
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