Misogyny

* Women are targets of rape and other equally heinous brutalities, domestic violence and child abuse. We are depersonalized, trivialized. We are the objects of demeaning entertainment that promotes violence against us. Women’s bodies are mutilated or maimed every day as a natural course of events. Female genital mutilation is traditional in many Third World countries. In China and India (and God knows where else) girl babies are murdered at birth. Where is the indignation? Where are the cries to punish the guilty?

One man has his penis cut off and the media circus surrounding the entire event is worthy of humankind’s arrival on the moon (“Lorena Bobbitt’s Trial for Cutting Penis Begins,” Jan. 11). If you doubt we live in a society that hates women, better take a long, slow look around.

SUSAN REDDY BUTLER

La Mirada