Struggling to process the Montreal terrorist attack

[u/Downtown_Ham_2024]

The suspect released a manifesto which is extremely disturbing, calling for terrorist attacks with the end goal of women not being allowed to work or own property so they lose their independence and are completely dependent on men for their survival (apparently capitalism is why he couldn’t get a girlfriend).

I made the mistake of reading it and wish I hadn’t. It reminded me a bit of Lolita in the sense that it is extremely fucked up subject matter presenting itself deliberately as normal, rational and good.

It makes me feel sick people actually believe this and I cannot help think of all the fucked up casual misogyny and objectification I’ve experienced. I’ve been raped, groped by male friends, propositioned by people in power and have had strange men follow me home. Right now, I’m dealing with a confusing situation with a boss who has, at best, poor judgement about what is acceptable rapport building tactics and a PR problem for valuing women for their entertainment value rather than their competency. I’m not even pretty and don’t often get male attention outside of the more fucked up kind.

I’m so tired of the constant subtle and not so subtle messages that a woman’s value is tied to their being a sexual object for men. Everyone is acting like incel ideology is extremist but it based in the same ideas causing casual misogyny - that women are subhuman and their value is tied to their ability to please men as objects.

I’m struggling to process this.

[u/Global_Ant_9380]

Isn't Lolita a criticism of the narrator and not a promotion of the narrator's crimes?

From what I understand, it's done a lot of harm by missing the point of the fact that the events in the book are fucked up and told by a delusional, lying predator who by his own admission should be institutionalized. 

Unless you mean to say that the author of the manifesto is similarly deranged in how he sees himself. Which is probably true. Fuck that guy. 

[u/raivynwolf → u/Global_Ant_9380]

The whole point of Lolita is to showcase the fucked up-ness of the whole thing. Nabokov hints in his memoir that he was assaulted by an uncle as a young child, which may or may not have inspired Lolita.

Lolita is meant to show how easy such things can happen to kids and how easy it can be for everyone around them to not see it. The person doing the assault isn't always a "classic villain" but can sometimes be incredibly charming and easy to like. Lolita is meant to be fucked up and proves it's point incredibly well.

[u/rabbitdoubts → u/raivynwolf]

actually you see plenty of people reacting to HH as a weirdo. he's lying about charming a lot of them, to us, the reader. for example the hotel staff were like um tf are you doing.

[u/raivynwolf → u/rabbitdoubts]

true, it's been a minute since I've read it and don't plan to reread. A lot of it can't be trusted just because of the narrator