A Reply to SWAG

Dear SWAG (Student Writers Advisory Group)

I enjoyed your additions to the gun debate. As fate would have it, the day after they were published in the LO Review, eight gunmen killed 129 people in Paris. The problem of gun violence, while especially acute in the US, is global. If we have any "hope for a solution," as Olivia Fuson wrote, then let's seek one that is universal and serves all humanity. To find it, "we simply cannot . . . avoid the many important conversations," wrote Kristi Rastogi. "Perhaps it is time for us to open our eyes . . . "

To what must we open our eyes?

First, to the very fact that the major American mass-murderers during the last five years - Chris, James, Adam, Dzhokhar, Tamerlan, Seung-Hui, Eric, Dylan, Kip, Dylann, Elliot, Aaron, John, Andrew, Wade, Scott, Jared and Omar - are all males. Contrast these with the names of the SWAG contributors - Olivia, Kristi, Nina, Serena, Ava, Talia and Anna - and you'll know where to look for a solution to gun violence.

Serena Zhang writes that male violence results more from social expectations than genetic influences. She may be right. But if we accept that conclusion without challenge, we might disregard the genetics that created our social expectations. After all, human genes came before human society.

Men's genes direct them to compete for dominance. A major goal of a male-dominated society is to encourage competition in order to make strong leaders for the future. This encouragement exists on all levels. So, yes, Serena, our society does foster the "toxic masculine ideal." But here's the catch: men love it. Men thrive, work harder and more creatively when challenged. Society advances. We all benefit.

Sounds ideal, right? But there's a downside, which is the young man who has a strong, biological drive to compete and dominate, but lacks the skills or education to reach his goal. In most cases, he accepts his lot. Occasionally in America, he buys a gun, and for a brief moment is absolute dictator.

The male solution to the problems caused by men with guns has remained unchanged for millennia: give more guns to more men. In the end, the male solution to gun violence is more gun violence, i.e. war. Is this stupid or what?

Woman's time has come. For the first time ever, humans have filled the planet. The world is a global village. Male exploitation and belligerence endanger our families and our future. Male competitive activities to achieve dominance destroy the natural world and obliterate our home. Women have always set and enforced the rules of the home. Now is the time to unite and do so globally.

How, you might ask, can women in a male-dominated culture shift the culture's emphasis away from competition, dominance, violence, war and guns, and toward a female-oriented culture in which children, education, health and environmental preservation take precedence? Men dominate every human enterprise and institution. How can women prevail?

Women can find a solution to male violence in the realms that are purely female, in the realms men can never invade, can never take from women, and can never dominate. If women unite around the idea of establishing a female-oriented, violence-free, healthy world, I have no doubt it will happen.