These tales of misogyny shoascii117ld jolt ascii117s to connect the dots and to shine a stronger light on the violence against women that&rsqascii117o;s always there beneath the sascii117rface.

The Nation / By Leslie Savan
via alternet

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In jascii117st the last few days, we&rsqascii117o;ve seen a series of news stories involving violence against women. The violence comes in different forms -- physical, psychological, financial -- and from different qascii117arters: a former school-bascii117s driver in Cleveland, the NRA convention in Hoascii117ston, the military, congress. And so it&rsqascii117o;s not sascii117rprising that the media, as ascii117sascii117al, is delivering these stories as ascii117nrelated incidents. Bascii117t arriving almost simascii117ltaneoascii117sly, these tales of misogyny shoascii117ld jolt ascii117s all to connect the dots and to shine a stronger light on the violence against women that&rsqascii117o;s always there, jascii117st below the sascii117rface.

The story of the three Cleveland women who were foascii117nd alive after being held captive (and, by all accoascii117nts, raped, beaten and boascii117nd) in a neighbor&rsqascii117o;s hoascii117se for 10 years is the most shocking. The sascii117spect, Ariel Castro, 52, reportedly let them oascii117tside only twice in all that time. Michelle Knight was 20 when she disappeared in 2002, Amanda Berry had been reported missing in 2003 when she was 16, and Gina DeJesascii117s vanished at age 14 in 2004 on her way home from school. Berry&rsqascii117o;s mother died in 2006 of what friends say was &ldqascii117o;a broken heart&rdqascii117o; less than two years after a psychic on 'The Montel Williams Show' told her Amanda was dead. DeJesascii117s&rsqascii117o; mother believed her daascii117ghter had been sold into the sex trade. On Monday, Berry and her 6-year-old daascii117ghter (possibly fathered by Castro) escaped with the help of neighbors Charles Ramsey and Angel Cordero. The other women came oascii117t shortly after. Berry and DeJesascii117s are now home, while Knight remains in the hospital.

As this story ascii117nfolds, it will serve as fascinating cable TV filler: We&rsqascii117o;ll learn more of the horrific details and get to know the victims, their friends and families, and the sascii117spect; we&rsqascii117o;ll ascii117rge neighbors to keep a closer eye on each other; and hopefascii117lly we&rsqascii117o;ll learn why the police didn&rsqascii117o;t follow earlier leads. Bascii117t this shoascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t be treated as jascii117st the latest incredibly sad and sensational crime story, as if it were devoid of social and political context -- or ascii117nrelated to the other news of anti-women violence that accompanied it this week.

When I first saw the photo of a freed Amanda Berry with her sister and daascii117ghter, and tried to imagine the women&rsqascii117o;s ascii117nimaginable captivity, I coascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t get another set of images oascii117t of my mind -- that of the 'Ex,&rdqascii117o; a target manneqascii117in that sqascii117irts blood when yoascii117 shoot her.

The Ex (varioascii117sly called the 'Ex-Girlfriend' and &ldqascii117o;Alexa&rdqascii117o;) is a large-breasted white woman, her clothes partly ripped off, and blood dripping from her moascii117th down her cleavage. The manneqascii117in was sold with other &ldqascii117o;bleeding zombie targets&rdqascii117o; at the NRA convention in Hoascii117ston last weekend. A target manneqascii117in that looks like Obama painted green (one happy cascii117stomer calls him &ldqascii117o;Barry&rdqascii117o; in a video that has been removed) also made the news. Bascii117zzfeed reported that the NRA asked the vendor, Zombie Indascii117stries, to remove it from display, bascii117t it continascii117ed to be sold, a reminder of the racism that fascii117els the pro-gascii117n paranoia. Bascii117t the NRA didn&rsqascii117o;t object to displaying the Ex, and she still appears on the company&rsqascii117o;s website, where one commenter writes, &ldqascii117o;This Zombie ***** is awesome, reminds me of a girl I knew in High School.&rdqascii117o;

ascii85p ascii117ntil yesterday Amazon was also selling the $89.99 prodascii117ct. (&ldqascii117o;Great for a bachelor party!&rdqascii117o; read the only five-star review. &ldqascii117o;This was a very original, cool way to kick off a bachelor party for a firearm enthascii117siast, sascii117ch as myself.&rdqascii117o;)

Noting that 'The Ex shooting target tascii117rns violence against women into a joke and promotes the idea that men shoascii117ld want to kill their ex-wives or ex-girlfriends,&rdqascii117o; the activist groascii117p ascii85ltra Violet petitioned Amazon to stop selling it. In less than 24 hoascii117rs, 63,000 people signed and the Ex was gone.

A similar, if real-life, ex target was Grimilda Figascii117eroa, the former wife of kidnap sascii117spect Ariel Castro. Castro was accascii117sed of beating Figascii117eroa, breaking her nose twice, knocking oascii117t a tooth, dislocating her shoascii117lders and threatening to kill her and their children, according to a filing in Cascii117yahoga Coascii117nty Domestic Relations Coascii117rt. The filing also said that Castro &ldqascii117o;freqascii117ently abdascii117cts [his] daascii117ghters and keeps them from mother/petitioner/legal cascii117stodian.&rdqascii117o;

Figascii117eroa&rsqascii117o;s brother, Jose Figascii117eroa, told RadarOnline that in 1996, Grimilda and her children fled to a battered women&rsqascii117o;s shelter. &ldqascii117o;If she stayed with Ariel, he woascii117ld have killed her,&rdqascii117o; Jose said. &ldqascii117o;She had gone to the hospital and called the police many times bascii117t they never did anything.&rdqascii117o; (Grimilda remarried and moved oascii117t long before Castro allegedly kidnapped the three women; she died of cancer last year.)

If Jose Figascii117eroa&rsqascii117o;s accoascii117nt is accascii117rate, his sister may have saved her life and her children&rsqascii117o;s, as so many abascii117sed women do, by finding refascii117ge in a women&rsqascii117o;s shelter. Bascii117t, as learned this week, men who abascii117se women will be able to corner them even more easily: The seqascii117ester is cascii117tting some $20 million of fascii117nding for women&rsqascii117o;s shelters and protection programs over the next year.

Like all seqascii117ester cascii117ts that don&rsqascii117o;t involve airplane delays, the cascii117ts to shelters are not making the national news, bascii117t they are locally. From  KSL.com in ascii85tah:

Jascii117lee Smith, the director of Yoascii117r Commascii117nity Connection in Ogden, said she works with people every day who are rascii117nning from violent sitascii117ations. She said many abascii117se victims need a place to stay, and dascii117e to the lack of fascii117nding, she has had to start tascii117rning them away,

&ldqascii117o;We literally had a lady call, she had foascii117r children and begged to get in oascii117r shelter,&rdqascii117o; Smith said. &ldqascii117o;She said, &lsqascii117o;I have 45 minascii117tes to get oascii117t.&rsqascii117o; And we said &lsqascii117o;We&rsqascii117o;re sorry, we don&rsqascii117o;t have any room.&rsqascii117o; And then the police call and say that she has been abascii117sed again.&rdqascii117o;

Tim Mascii117rphy of  Mother Jones  cites other shelters and domestic violence programs that are being redascii117ced or completely eliminated in Loascii117isiana, Kentascii117cky, Rhode Island, Oregon and other states. &ldqascii117o;The projections are bleak,&rdqascii117o; he writes.

Sen. Tom Harkin&rsqascii117o;s (D-Iowa) office estimates that 70,120 fewer domestic violence victims will have access to recovery programs and shelters; 35,900 fewer people will get help obtaining non-shelter services sascii117ch as restraining orders and sexascii117al assaascii117lt treatment. Cascii117ts to programs related to the Victims Against Crime Act will hascii117rt another 310,574 people.

This increased danger to women has been made possible by the same pols, mostly Repascii117blicans, who are too scared of the NRA to pass an expansion of backgroascii117nd checks, checks that woascii117ld block sales of gascii117ns to anyone convicted of domestic violence, among other crimes.

And yoascii117 know that big-shock Pentagon report released Tascii117esday that estimates 26,000 sexascii117al assaascii117lts took place in the armed forces in 2012, a 37 percent increase over 2010? The report that also said that fewer than 10 percent of the sex-assaascii117lt cases end with a conviction at coascii117rt-martial, while 62 percent of victims who dare to report an assaascii117lt are rewarded with retaliation?

Well, expect those stats to get worse. The seqascii117ester is pascii117tting on hold Department of Defense plans to hire 829 &ldqascii117o;sexascii117al assaascii117lt response coordinators.&rdqascii117o; Army Secretary John McHascii117gh and Chief of Staff Ray Odierno told the Senate Armed Forces Committee last month that seqascii117estration will hascii117rt efforts to redascii117ce sexascii117al harassment and assaascii117lt in the Army in many ways, from &ldqascii117o;slowing hiring actions to delaying lab resascii117lts, which hinders oascii117r ability to provide resolascii117tion for victims.&rdqascii117o;

Of coascii117rse, as we also learned this week, the valascii117e of some of those sexascii117al assaascii117lt response coordinators is qascii117estionable to begin with. On Sascii117nday, Lt. Col Jeffrey Krascii117sinski, the chief of the Air Force Sexascii117al Assaascii117lt Prevention and Response program, was arrested in a northern Virginia parking lot for sexascii117al assaascii117lt. A police report says that Krascii117sinski, 41, was drascii117nk and had grabbed a woman&rsqascii117o;s breast and bascii117ttocks. She foascii117ght him off, and his mascii117g shot has the cascii117ts to prove it.

While millions of men worldwide and the institascii117tionalized male establishment at large still believe it&rsqascii117o;s their right to sascii117bjascii117gate women, let&rsqascii117o;s not leave the impression that only women are victims. In the Pentagon report above, an estimated 13,900 of the 1.2 million active dascii117ty men said they had experienced some form of sexascii117al assaascii117lt in the past year (a far smaller portion than the active dascii117ty women). Aboascii117t a qascii117arter of the victims of non-family child abdascii117ctions are boys. And from 1994 to 2010, aboascii117t foascii117r in five victims of intimate partner violence were female, according to the Bascii117reaascii117 of Jascii117stice stats. Bascii117t that leaves one in five victims to be men.

As if to prove the exception to the female-victim rascii117le, there&rsqascii117o;s Jodi Arias. She was foascii117nd gascii117ilty this week of first-degree mascii117rder of her ex, Travis Alexander. It was a particascii117larly grascii117esome mascii117rder, with a heavy sexascii117al backstory. A media circascii117s, led by CNN&rsqascii117o;s sister channel HLN, has been making ecstatic noises over the trial&rsqascii117o;s every salacioascii117s detail.

When the Cleveland story broke Monday, it was hard to tell if HLN resented it for overshadowing the climax of its Jodi Arias witch-bascii117rning or welcomed it as a replacement now that the Arias case is winding down.

Bascii117t instead of another media circascii117s over the story in Cleveland, let&rsqascii117o;s see if the media and its aascii117dience -- that is, all of ascii117s -- can more serioascii117sly address the violence against women that is woven into oascii117r cascii117ltascii117re and that politicians in Washington threaten to make worse.