Women = Clowns

The abuse of women comes down to the clowns.

Let me explain:

First, there's another member for our brigade of Honorary White Trash! We can add the family of Aqsa Parvez to the list.

What makes some people so cowardly, so utterly terrified of women that they must control their every move? And don't kid yourself: this is fear.

Not fear of "losing control" - that's an excuse to rape, not a "loss of control". When one of the leaders of a sect won't even look at the person interviewing him, you know he's got woman issues. Forcing women to wear burkhas or chadors is not even mentioned in the Koran! That women should "dress modestly" is as close as it gets. And I won't even mention Mohammed's first wife being a successful businesswoman...

This could be considered a religious issue, but I'm not convinced it is - certainly not limited to a single religion, anyways. The suppression of women in both ancient and modern Christian, Muslim and other faiths is well enough documented to move beyond that. Abuse of women is all to common in secular regions, or in circumstances where religion plays no part.

This could be considered a teenage rebellion issue, but let's be serious here: a kid acting up, even to the extent of being "uncontrollable"is going to get, what? Kicked out of the house, perhaps; maybe even arrested. But killed by their parents? Name the last time that happened to a young man.

Bottom line: it's the clowns.

There's a common fear of clowns, and it often walks hand-in-hand with a fear of children and a fear of toys. If you saw the movie Toy Story, you may remember how the toys stopped the local bully from treating the young "hero" badly: they came to life and threatened him. Sounds odd, sure; but how we treat others is both a signifier and result of that fear.

Not sure where I'm going with this? Here's another analogy that may make more sense to you: slaves.

The Ku Klux Klan started as a response to former slaves being freed, and the terror many white people held for that idea. The reason for the whites fear wasn't just the possible loss of social position, as Harper Lee discussed in To Kill A Mockingbird - though that was certainly part of it.

The fear came from a fear of retribution. As poorly as the slaves were treated, in America the idea of them being freed was not considered possible, and so retribution was never thought possible.

Which brings us to the childish fear of toys: unanimously, those who fear toys are those who deliberately destroyed them when they were younger. It's not a binary equation, of course, as lots of typically psychotic youth did horrendous things to Mr. Potato Head or Captain Kirk; but guilt and fear bring nightmares of inanimate things springing to life for the sole purpose of revenge.

And to clowns. We laugh at clowns, dumping public scorn and ridicule on them with their helpless antics and terrible misfortunes. That the open derision is publicly acceptable makes it no more bearable; even that they make themselves the targets by their costumes ("They look so different!") is little solace if you imagine yourself in their place: how you would feel, what you would want to do to those who mock...

Again, it's not everyone who feels this way; but there are enough who know what their history is, how they treated others, others they never expected to be anywhere near their equals: the worse they behaved towards these "others", the more terrified they are...

And here is where I'll leave you to consider fears and why they come.