Violence against women is a hate crime

As I read more and more about rapes, murders and other heinous crimes, often times the victim was specifically targeted. At times, they are targeted because of their gender. If we are going to charge people with hate crimes, gender has to be considered far more than it is now.

As a woman, I would argue that "women" are not recognized as victims of "hate crimes". We make up more than half the population yet due to the male dominated law enforcement agencies and legal system we have been ignored.

So I ask, when is violence against a woman specifically because of her gender going to get counted as a "hate crime"?

Just another example of how women are not taken seriously except in their position as "someone's mother" (and even then not much).

When are we going to start taking hate crimes against women seriously?

According to The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, requirements are being increased for hate crimes committed on the basis of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or gender of any person. What I want to know is, when have you ever heard of a hate crime being prosecuted because the individual was simply a woman?

Crimes against women because of their perceived status, body parts, looks, weight, strength, style of dress, etc. happen all the time. When are we going to start prosecuting these actions as hate crimes? The individual that killed women taking a yoga class in Florida was a self titled misogynist who had been arrested numerous times prior to the shooting for groping women and slapping and grabbing their buttocks. When are these illegal actions going to count as hate crimes? When is there going to be national outrage and a national women's group (like NAACP) for women? When are we going to say "enough his enough"?

These crimes are hate crimes and need to be prosecuted as such. Sadly, they are not because we, as a society, think these actions against women are just "boys being boys" or "men being men". With that frame of mind, I guess the Florida shooter was just "being a man" all the times he got arrested for groping women and we should never have been worried about those incidents or the fact that he said outright he was a misogynist. Oh how wrong we were.

Access vs. Entitlement

In my talks with other therapists and business owners lately, the word entitlement keeps coming up. In business meetings and at my practice I continue to see this confusion. The following is my personal view.

In all reality, the only people that are entitled to any and all that I have are God, my husband and my son. Spiritually, legally and biologically they are entitled to any and all benefits, money, material things, emotional support, etc. that I have.

Everyone else in my life is granted access. And I have control over who gets it. I have a right to say who gets my time, energy, and support. In both my personal life and business life this has granted me a reputation for being tough (or mean) but I do not keep people around for long who confuse access with entitlement. Knowing and enforcing the difference has done nothing but improve my personal and business life.

You can't plant seeds in dry ground and expect a harvest. You only get harvest from fertile ground. It may be a hard thing to hear, but it will save you from wasting your most precious commodity - TIME.