Bialek 1

Lea Bialek

Dr. LaCom

Intro to Gender Studies

Final Paper

QAI: How is masculinity, racism, and mental illness part of dialogues on mass shootings? Why

is it important to recognize this?

Columbine. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. Aurora, Colorado. Charleston. Five out of five

of these mass shootings were committed by men. Four out of those five men are white. The

media makes mistakes in their coverage of mass shootings. Race and gender play a major role in

mass shootings. There are various connections between the media, mental illness, race,

masculinity, and mass shootings, and in recognizing them, society can begin to address the issue

of mass shootings.

Mass shootings are orchestrated predominantly by white males. “According to data

compiled by Mother Jones magazine, which looked at mass shootings in the United States since

1982, white people -- almost exclusively white men -- committed some 64% of the shootings…

Black people committed close to 16% of the mass shooting Mother Jones looked at, while Asians

were responsible for around 9%. People identified as either Latino, Native American and

unknown rounded out the study.” (CNN). Additionally, white mass shooters are often said to

have had a whole life ahead of them, they are loners, or they are mentally ill.

More often than not, society and the media portray a white mass shooter as “mentally ill”.

However, perpetrators of color are called “terrorists,” “thugs,” and “violent”, in addition to the

slurs they are called in the public sphere. In the case of the Charleston mass shooting, the media

was quick to say it was a hate crime committed by a mentally ill white man against the black
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community. In labeling him as such, the shooter was humanized. Being labeled mentally ill

means that he did not have control of his actions, and he was not full of intent. An article in the

Washington Post further supports this claim that the Charleston shooter was more than just a

person carrying out a hate crime:

It’s clear that killing the pastor and members of this church was a deliberate act of

hate. Mayor Riley noted that “the only reason that someone could walk into a

church and shoot people praying is out of hate.” But we need to take it a step

further. There was a message of intimidation behind this shooting, an act that

mirrors a history of terrorism against black institutions involved in promoting

civil and human rights. The hesitation by some in the media to label the white,

male killer a terrorist is telling. (Butler)

There was no mention of the word “terrorist” in popular news headlines. The societal belief is

that there is no good reason, in a white-dominated society, why he would be filled with intent to

kill. Of course, a white man is rarely called a terrorist in today’s society – he is mentally ill,

deranged, messed up in the head. “Terrorist” is a word that remains linked to people of color.

Since the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11, the word “terrorist” has been

linked to Middle Easterners. Merriam-Webster.com defines terrorism as “the systematic use of

terror especially as a means of coercion” (“Terrorism”). That seems to be the case with many

mass shootings, but not all are labeled as such. Also, the media is clearly hesitant when it comes

to labeling white killers as more than mentally ill. This muddies the validity of mental illness,

because it conveys the message that a large amount of mentally ill people are likely to commit

heinous acts of violence. That is untrue. According to a study done on people with severe mental

illness by Swartz et al., “17.8% of the study group… had engaged in serious violent acts that
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involved weapons or caused injury” (227). By continuing to fall back on mental illness as an

explanation as to why a white man would commit a mass shooting, society invalidates those that

legitimately have mental health issues.

Diverting from mass shootings, an example of racial differences in the media was found

on an ABC news affiliate, KCRG News. In March of 2015, internet activists discovered a

discrepancy between two news articles posted on the same day (Rutherford-Morrison). One

article reads “Three University of Iowa wrestlers arrested; burglary charges pending.” Below the

headline is a picture of the three young men. All of them are white and wearing school uniforms.

The other article’s headline says “Coralville police arrest four in burglary investigation.” All of

them are black males, and their mugshots are used. KCRG has since changed the picture for the

young men to their mugshots. This kind of media coverage is not uncommon. The Huffington

Post put together a list of headlines that exercise racial profiling: “Trayvon Martin was

suspended three times from school,” “"Santa Barbara shooting: Suspect was 'soft spoken, polite,

a gentleman', ex principal says” (Wing). The first headline implies that Trayvon was slated to be

a victim – he got what was essentially coming to him. The second headline defends the white,

male shooter. The soft-spoken white person is never imagined to be a killer. The soft-spoken

black person, however, is a different story – his death was predicted. Young black boys are

having their childhood taken from them – and sometimes literally. A popular example of this is

the case of a young, black twelve-year-old boy named Tamir Rice. Rice was shot and killed by

police after being seen playing with a toy gun. One of the news headlines after his death read

“Tamir Rice's father has history of domestic violence” (Wing). The news headline had nothing to

do with why a young boy would be playing with a toy gun. The news group that wrote the story

later explained their actions, saying the story was written because "people from across the region
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have been asking whether Rice grew up around violence” (Wing). This story would not have

been written if Tamir Rice was white; he would not have been shot and killed in the first place.

The media continues to perpetuate the stereotype that black people grow up prone to acting out

with violence, and the age of violence is dropping steadily.

Diverting from race, there is a gendered approach to mass shootings. “99 percent of

school shootings… have been committed by men and boys” (Earp). With that statistic, it is

apparent that it is important to have a conversation on masculinity and how it plays into males

committing such a high volume of mass shootings. In order to deconstruct the problem of

masculinity and how it correlates to violence, we have to look “carefully at how our culture

defines manhood, how boys are socialized, and how pressure to stay in the "man box" not only

constrains boys' and men's emotional and relational development, but also their range of choices

when faced with life crises. Psychological factors in men's development and psyches surely need

to be examined, but the best analyses see individual men's actions in a social and historical

context” (Katz). Despite a patriarchal society, men have increasingly been exposed to the idea of

defending their masculinity. In many cases, such as Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Northern

Illinois, the mass shootings were performed after embarrassment or hurt feelings. Michael

Kimmel, author and Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, describes this sentiment as

“aggrieved entitlement.” Aggrieved entitlement is an ongoing fight to reclaim and hold power

and dominance as a man. Kimmel goes on further to explain aggrieved entitlement and its role in

masculinity and mass shootings:

What transforms the aggrieved into mass murders is also a sense of entitlement, a

sense of using violence against others, making others hurt as you, yourself, might

hurt. Aggrieved entitlement inspires revenge against those who have wronged
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you; it is the compensation for humiliation. Humiliation is emasculation:

humiliate someone and you take away his manhood. For many men, humiliation

must be avenged, or you cease to be a man. Aggrieved entitlement is a gendered

emotion, a fusion of that humiliating loss of manhood and the moral obligation

and entitlement to get it back. And its gender is masculine. (Kalish and Kimmel)

Kimmel suggests that when men lose what they believe they are entitled to, they will do

whatever it takes to get it back – including violent acts. How do we address the problem of men

using mass shootings to reclaim their masculinity? As stated earlier, a conversation needs to

start. Firstly, we need men to unlearn internalizing pain. Internalizing pain leads to “taking the

feelings that boil up inside us – feelings of insecurity and stress from striving so hard for success

– and channeling them in a bundle of rage which is directed at opponents and enemies” (Sabo).

In the case of mass shootings, men are allowing the internalized pain to build until they are

channeled violently. They take out the person that caused the pain. In society, it is more accepted

for a woman to express their feelings. Society needs to recognize that men have pain too, and

they are not any less masculine for letting it out in healthy ways. From boyhood on, a male must

“prove decisively his commitment to masculinity” (Glassner). Mentors and coaches of young

boys need to stop reinforcing the idea of “no pain, no gain.” A society of internalized pain will

only lead to a society with more and more mass shootings. Additionally, the media and society

recognize one emotion in black men – anger. The black man is seen as hypermasculine, which

inherently makes him more violent. However, black men are not as free as black women to

express their emotions, because “any expressions of frustration or aggravation may be perceived

as… threatening” (Wingfield). Furthermore, “The expressed rage of the urban Black male, which

was once viewed as a political vehicle and a form of self-expression, today is seen as aimless,
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dangerous, and self-destructive” (Hunter and Davis). The stigma that black men are angry and

violent can be reduced by redefining black masculinity. It needs to be more socially acceptable

for a black man to express and not restrict their emotions. Overall, masculinity needs to be

challenged.

The media, mental illness, race, and masculinity all play a part in mass shootings. The

media perpetuates racial profiling and the misrepresentation of mental illness. Ideas of gender

and masculinity are a contributing factor to mass shootings. It is extremely important that we, as

a society, break down the reasons as to why we think the way we do when it comes to mass

shootings. Only then can we fix the problem, and reduce the number of mass shootings.
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Works Cited

Rutherford-Morrison, Lara. "Controversy Erupts Over Newspaper's Use of Photos In Reporting

Two Similar Crimes." Bustle. 1 Apr. 2015. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.

Butler, Anthea. "Shooters of Color Are Called 'terrorists' and 'thugs.' Why Are White Shooters

Called 'mentally Ill'?" Washington Post. The Washington Post. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.

Earp, Jeremy. "FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER COLUMBINE WE'RE STILL ASKING THE

WRONG QUESTIONS." Voice Male Summer 2014: 10,11,13,15. ProQuest. Web. 7

Dec. 2015.

Follman, Mark, Gavin Aronsen, Deanna Pan, and Maggie Caldwell. "US Mass Shootings, 1982-

2015: Data From Mother Jones' Investigation." Mother Jones. Mother Jones and the

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Ford, Dana. "Who Commits Mass Shootings? - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 24 July

2015. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.

Kalish, Rachel, and Michael Kimmel. "Suicide by Mass Murder: Masculinity, Aggrieved

Entitlement, and Rampage School Shootings." Health Sociology Review: 451-64. Print.

Katz, Jackson. "Memo to Media: Manhood, Not Guns or Mental Illness, Should Be Central in

Newtown Shooting." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Feb. 2013. Web.

6 Dec. 2015.

Glassner, Barry. "Men and Muscles." Ed. Michael S. Kimmel and Michael A. Messner. Men's

Lives. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1995. 252-61. Print.

Hunter, Andrea G., and James Earl Davis. “Hidden Voices of Black Men: The Meaning,

Structure, and Complexity of Manhood”. Journal of Black Studies 25.1 (1994): 20–40.

Web.
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Sabo, Don. "Men and Muscles." Ed. Michael S. Kimmel and Michael A. Messner. Men's Lives.

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"Terrorism” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 8 December 2011.

Wing, Nick. "Police Gunned Down A 12-Year-Old And Somehow Local News Decided To Run

This Story." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

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in Professional Workplaces”.Social Problems 57.2 (2010): 251–268. Web.

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