Woodstock 99, HBO, and Male Rage

In the Woodstock 99 doc on HBO, everyone tries to understand the violent, misogynistic behavior of white, male concertgoers at the turn of the century, citing Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit lyrics played against a disgust for Boy Bands at the time, likening it all to Columbine-style rage and attributing it to Bill Clinton's BJ, but I think it had, and still has, something to do with gender roles and how men are seen as purely predatory, which stems, pardon the pun, from the notion that man's stabbing gratification; the thing men are supposed to seek for survival of the species and all, seems violent, thus shading them as aggressive, and it's that constant and instant generalization, played for laughs in a current Progressive insurance commercial that features a male voice-over narrating a woman's day, seemingly against her will, until she asks that he, the male voice, stop following her, that clouds not only man's social status but also his self esteem until he ultimately lashes out at both the system that criminalizes him AND the women who might endorse it. It's still wrong- assault really- but these observations weren't made in the documentary, or at least didn't make the final edit. That said, the best thing I've seen on the internet was a picture of a naked woman at a rally with STILL NOT ASKING FOR IT written on her torso- a middle finger to the skirt-too-short stylized rape defense, and a piggybacking sentiment of DON'T TELL WOMEN HOW TO DRESS. TELL MEN NOT TO RAPE. Men are aware of society's ills, and any father who has a daughter has quietly shuddered at the thought of the world's affect on her, and some men are criminals- awful people who should be punished- but the others; the guilty-by-association ones- that's an entire sub-set that's been under-construction since the 1970's, and while this group might not be the group in the Woodstock doc, this should be part of the search for the reason and for the remedy.

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