Tear Down the Wall

Or How I Quit Worrying About Men and ... Nope, Still Worrying.

I’m teaching two university classes this semester, both research- and writing-based sophomore seminars. The instructor gets to pick the theme, and this year, based on a suggestion from my spouse, I decided on a deep dive into Pink Floyd’s The Wall – both movie and album. Most of the students hadn’t heard of either, and the one who had said they were among her favorites.

SPOILERS: The protagonist of The Wall is a rock star named Pink, forced to grow up under the care of a smothering, widowed mom. He spirals into narcissism and fascistic xenophobia as the result of his lifestyle and wife’s decision to leave him. He’s Kanye West, basically, except Pink's madness is more contagious and pushes his fan base into an orgy of violence. END OF SPOILERS.

Group presentations, due next week, have pulled in dozens of other concept albums, comparing and contrasting theme and story. Weekly readings have explored changes in audio technology, the math of the minor key, and the vagina dentata, which features heavily in The Wall film’s animation sequences. The experience, added to current events, has filled my head near bursting with examples of but no real solution to a major social ill: Society may not be comfortable with watching a grown man cry, but based on everything from mass shootings to Donald Trump’s alleged sexual assaults to Kyle Rittenhouse to Alex Jones’s on-screen raging to Will Smith’s Oscar slap, it’s just fine with – and seems to expect – emoting through violence, threats, and anger. Furthermore, there’s something in the masculine programming that makes them – us – believe that it’s okay to strike out if our feelings have been hurt, our world-view challenged, and our desires unmet. 

This is why the greatest threat to women is men. In 2019 alone (note this is pre-COVID and who the hell knows what happened after 2020) there were at least 1,795 women murdered by men in single victim/single shooter offender incidents (When Men Murder Woman, a 2021 analysis by the Violence Policy Center). Ninety-one percent of those women were killed by a man they knew, usually a husband or boyfriend. 

It’s just what guys do, right? I’ve never been sexually assaulted or challenged to a fist fight by a woman but by men? Yeah, both, and more than once. There was something in those dudes that made them think it was okay, and they acted on it. 

I have that something, too. My father was free with his hands (his father a hundred times worse), and I can’t begin to count the times I have had to push down dark thoughts and resist the urge to strike out. Animal instinct or learned behavior? A combination of both, probably, but dangerous and scary either way. 

Maybe not all men, but enough that being an exception doesn’t make you exempt from dealing with the problem. Last time I looked up the numbers, one out of ten men will sexually assault someone before they leave college. Four out of five women will be sexually assaulted in that time. That’s your sister, your daughter, your son, your nephew … and even if it isn’t, it’s your species, your society. 

How ‘bout we do better?

News:  My publisher sent me the first-round of edits for Earth Retrograde, the second book in The First Planets duology, which is due out Oct. 23, 2023. No major hiccups, just several weeks of work until I see daylight again. 

Until next time, chums: take some time to listen to the whole album instead of just the singles.

P.S. I like working alongside my students, so I assigned myself an analysis of a concept album, too.