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Current headlines on Yahoo! News:
Female bombers strike markets in Baghdad from the AP
Female bombers kill 72 at Baghdad pet markets from Reuters
The problem with these headlines? They completely change the connotation of what actually happened. Because both articles mention (eventually. The AP article states this in the first sentence but Reuters waits until halfway through the article to state) that the women were mentally retarded - most likely Downs syndrome.
These women weren't active, willing participants in this carnage. They were the victims just as much as anyone else in that market place. Someone strapped explosives to them and then used a remote control to detonate the explosives. The articles are just headlined this way in order to attract attention to that which is different - women - than to the true atrocities that obviously took place - abuse of the disabled.
Gah.
Female bombers strike markets in Baghdad from the AP
Female bombers kill 72 at Baghdad pet markets from Reuters
The problem with these headlines? They completely change the connotation of what actually happened. Because both articles mention (eventually. The AP article states this in the first sentence but Reuters waits until halfway through the article to state) that the women were mentally retarded - most likely Downs syndrome.
These women weren't active, willing participants in this carnage. They were the victims just as much as anyone else in that market place. Someone strapped explosives to them and then used a remote control to detonate the explosives. The articles are just headlined this way in order to attract attention to that which is different - women - than to the true atrocities that obviously took place - abuse of the disabled.
Gah.
I've spent a good deal of time working for an organization devoted to improving gender relations, and as part of my initial training, we had to engage in some in-depth discussion about gender stereotypes. One of the videos we watched talked about men and violence, and how headlines like these are both harmful and extremely common.
I mean, those two headlines are offensive on so many different levels. The complete brush-off about the abuse of the disabled is really frustrating and horrible, and there's the gender issue, too. Have you ever seen a headline that says "Male Bombers Strike"? Absolutely never, because, according to our cultural expectations, women committing violence is different, while men committing violence is completely normal. Which perpetuates the violent "tough guy" stereotype, further breaking down equal gender relationships and increasing the ratio of male-committed crimes to female-committed crimes, increasing the ratio of headlines like this. It's such a terribly frustrating cycle, and whenever I see headlines like this it makes me want to yell "F'ING NEWS MEDIA!!!" and go a little crazy.
NPR mentioned the women bombers this morning. No mention of their disability status. I'm going to poke around before I get angry at them for ignoring that VITAL fact ('facts' can change over 24 hours - maybe whoever initially reported these women had downs syndrome was incorrect).