How our society reinforces masculine violence
AlterNet / By Nicholas Powers
Early morning July 20, we cheered the new Batman movie as a thousand miles away a crowd watching the same film screamed as a gunman, barged in, flung a smoke bomb and began shooting. In San Francisco, we left the cinema laughing at the stupid politics ofThe Dark Knight Rises. In Aurora, Colorado, 12 were killed and 59 wounded as the shock spread to the nation in the morning news. Already one truth stands out; the shooting is not isolated but like a mirror reflects the dark logic of the film, itself a reflection of America’s romance with violence.
One thing we know about gunman James Holmes is that he wanted a stage. Like the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre gunman Seiung-Hui Cho, who mailed videos of himself; or the 1999 Columbine gunmen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who meticulously recorded themselves prepping for the massacre; the Dark Knightgunman wanted to be seen. In killing others, he tried to secure for himself the image of a strong powerful man who could wreck havoc on the world. And this is exactly the role that Bane (acted by Tom Hardy), the anarchist villain in The Dark Knight Rises, plays as he bombs Gotham City and unleashes enraged prisoners on the rich. He and Wayne Enterprise executive Miranda Tate (played by Marion Cotillard) avenge those trapped in The Pit and forgotten by society. Already theHerald Sun reports that the Dark Knight gunman was dressed in armor and gas mask, like Bane. [Read more…]