Part I of V
“Why do men feel threatened by women?” I asked a male friend of mine. – – So this male friend of mine, who does by the way exist, conveniently entered into the following dialogue. “I mean,” I said, “men are bigger, most of the time, they can run faster, strangle better, and they have on the average a lot more money and power.” “They are afraid women will laugh at them,” he said. “Undercut their world view.” Then I asked some women students in a quickie poetry seminar I was giving, “Why do women feel threatened by men?” “They’re afraid of being killed,” they said.
Source: ‘Writing The Male Character’ (1982), p. 413 in “Second Words – Selected Critical Prose 1960-1982” (2018)”
― Margaret Atwood
AKA: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.
We have to acknowledge that climbing has a harassment and sexual violence problem, particularly toward women. Content warning for this entire article: sexual harassment, sexual abuse, abuse, and bullying. And I have touched on this issue before in my article/podcast Hidden Figures: The Villain Arc.1
This will be one of the heavier subjects due to the extreme case that ended in a conviction of a serial woman abuser as well as the call out of an online harasser. The ripple effect of that behavior is something that will be felt in the community for a long time. But most specifically the affected subject of today is Reel Rock, specifically having to do with the films The Cobra and the Heart and Death of Villains.2
I want to fully recognize that this type of harassment, violence, and sexual criminal behavior from men also span to the LGBTQIA2S+ community3 as well. However, due to the cis gender and straight individuals involved in both examples here, the lens will be mostly focused on cis gender, straight women.
In order to analyze current events, we must understand the culture in which Reel Rock is born from both internally and society at large. We will take a look at the history and origin story of Reel Rock, analyze the rhetoric around the controversial films, US policies that have controlled women’s lives, and how it all intersects with the view of women being property and therefore more at risk to physical and sexual violence and harassment due to this outdated view which still haunts us through attitudes which become harmful action…
Read/watch/listen to the rest of this journey on my Substack
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Works Cited
- Hudelson, Crystal. “Hidden Figures: The Villain Arc.” https://rockrose.blog/2024/12/16/hidden-figures-the-villain-arc/ 03/27/2025
- Reel Rock. https://reelrocktour.com/pages/rr19-films 03/27/2025
- The Trevor Project. “Sexual Violence and Suicide Risk among LGBTQ+ Young People”https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/sexual-violence-and-suicide-risk-among-lgbtq-young-people/ 03/27/2025
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