One more woman dead

What impunity runs so rampant that women can be discarded by the side of the road over and over, their bodies violated, their lives robbed, choked out of them, with uncaring, crushingly powerful man-hands?

How can it happen again and again and not be an issue of international moral outrage? I have not personally done enough research to form an articulate theory (although it seems that there are a few) as to _who_ could be doing this... I imagine that is obvious enough... the only people afforded impunity in this world have high-end political and economic ties to dominant government figures... that isn't a novel thought, though sadly a very apropos one. The question of who... probably answered. The question of how? Also, probably not very difficult to ascertain. Preying on women who have no social networks available, who must work long hours, far from home, perhaps whose only resource is the very body that meets its ultimate demise. Women who left one bad situation to find themselves in another equally appalling (or worse) state of existence. Frail women, dark women, women who no one would miss. Women who nobody sees. Women who are like shadows, whose essence is in their hidden existence. Women whose hands perhaps sewed the jeans that you wear, or assembled the Television that numbs your brain. How hard could it really be to steal in broad daylight a woman like this? Or to trick her into believing that you really might love her, that you could offer a way out? That she is beautiful, or desireable, or just worthy of a little attention. No, the _how_ seems relatively easy enough.

But the _why_? That is what has been bothering me deeply. Some view men (or humans) as so base as to simply be doing this for "recreation" - that is - a way for the "Juniors" to un-bore themselves for a little while. (As if they have been pushed so far to the margin from having too much that they have lost all moral judgement and want the only thing that would give them the opportunity of "natural" social transgression associated with late teenage identity development.) I don't believe that for a minute.

Sure, there are monsters, one need only to look at Hitler's henchmen, or Videla's strong arms, etc. etc. people who enjoy the systematic destruction of others, the sadistic inflicting of pain. But monsters like those are few and far between, and are generally either caught (when operating on their own) or must belong to some massive state-sanctioned apparatus that allows them to dissociate the atrocity of the actions from themselves as individuals.

This doesn't seem to be the case with the women of Juarez. There is no guerilla warfare in that part of the country, not that has manifested itself, anyway. There is no persuasive propaganda being spun. Just silent acceptance. Una más. So back to the question of why. If my analysis is correct (which it may well not be) then these monstruous acts are not being committed for the sheer monstrosity of themselves, but rather have a very powerful motivating factor behind them. What could that motivating factor be? Well, let's just examine the geographic position of Ciudad Juarez. Oh, right. Just across the border from the good ol' US of Assholes (that's us) Texas…. In addition to being the number one consumer of heavy narcotics, it seems that we are also the number one consumer in pornography. Now I will not go down the road of discussing moral implications of partaking of pornography, frankly seeing sex for sex doesn't do too much for me if the story behind it isn't good. But that's just me. It is human to be aroused by visual stimulation, (among other kinds) and it is human to seek out satisfaction. In a way I suppose for those who have no other access, or simply prefer that model, it is a reasonable option. I won't go into the heinous working conditions for many porn-actors/actresses, or the questions of what sex devoid of emotional bond might do to a person. I won't even complain about the corrolary violence against women that it can inspire. Other far more educated and articulate people have done so. But what I would like to bring up is the question of snuff films.

The underlying assumption that lets "consenting adults" watch pornography (I imagine) is that a) the participants must have been enjoying it and b) they had clearly given their consent. These assumptions might be false, but as humans we have a built-in self-defense-mechanism that lets us believe what we need in order to function. BUT. No one could possibly watch a snuff film (whose market, it seems, is ever increasing... where? You guessed it!) and believe that the woman who is brutally raped and finally, in real time, killed could be a consenting participant.

Where would you find a limitless supply of film-fodder for a black-market whose economic ramifications are mind-boggling?

I don't know. Maybe Ciudad Juarez?

Just a thought.

Is it so far-fetched to imagine that once again the economics of borderland policy would leave a bloody trail of destruction in its wake?