The current gun violence crisis comes at a time when gun ownership soared during the pandemic and the number of white nationalist groups jumped by 55% during the Trump presidency.
There are a lot of guns and a lot of anger — much of which is fueled by misogyny and white supremacy that spreads like a wildfire because of social media — in the country right now, experts said.
“There’s a masculinity epidemic in the United States, and we’re seeing that time and again in these shootings,” said Sarah Prior, a sociology professor at Michigan State University whose research focuses on gendered violence.
Prior and [Center on Extremism content director Jessica] Reaves were careful to note the dangerous collision of misogyny and white supremacy — and how misogyny can often introduce people to white supremacy — and their role in violence.
Misogyny “stands on its own as an extremist ideology” that’s “often interwoven with tenets of white supremacy, antisemitism; there’s all sorts of gross belief systems that depend heavily on hatred of women or play off of hatred of women,” Reaves noted. …
“We can’t ignore the fact that policies are made based on lived experiences of people in positions who make policies,” McMorrow said. “When sexual harassment and misogyny is swept under the rug so frequently, it’s not surprising we’ve stalled out on passing any gun legislation.”
— Anna Gustafson in Misogyny Is Fueling the Country’s Gun Violence Epidemic, Experts Say
