What Would Ellen Ripley Say?

A blog was published at Magonia on June 3, 2012 entitled “SHJ, IFOS, AND THE FEMINISATION OF UFOLOGY.” The short paragraph which refers to the feminization of ufology has spawned a couple of other blogs where my latest post, “The Frustrating Aspect of Alien Screen Imagery,” has been linked with this article. It’s interesting and tragic on several levels.  Let’s begin:

Let me be clear, I am a woman, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering, I hold a job in my profession, and I am an alien abductee.  I know a thing or two about discrimination, ignorance, cruelty, and just plain gender stupidity.

First off -- I have never heard of this survey of women in ufology. What is this survey and where can you find it? When was it conducted? Who participated in this survey? Nobody I know was involved in it. The first time I have seen this reference to this women in ufology survey is from the Magonia blog referenced above. I find it unprofessional not to mention anything about this survey’s particulars. Is there any reason to believe this survey even existed?

The references in the Magonia piece connecting women’s ‘confessional’ magazines with women in ufology are strange to me. What does this magazine genre have to do with women in ufology? This doesn’t relate to me personally. What is interesting to me is that a man seems to know more about women’s confessional magazines than I do. As a woman, I am used to a lifetime of men and boys trying to tell me how to think, how to feel, what to do, what I really want, etc.  So does it surprise me that a male writer would reference an article entitled “Evil Hubby Sacrificed my Pussy to Satan” and relate it somehow to females in ufology -- unfortunately no. Maybe HE would know more about Satan’s desire for pussy than I would.  Leave it to a man to get the word “pussy” in there when he writes a column on women’s confessional magazines in relation to women in ufology. I have zero interest in this kind of literary garbage. Does it surprise me….no. I’ve seen it before and I will see it again.

So -- if women are involved in ufology and particularly alien abduction, Magonia suggests we are “part of the cult of the victim.” Would a support group of female or male rape victims be considered a cult of victimization?  You have a similar group of people who are undergoing therapy and support so therefore the support group meeting must be a worship session of their victimization?

What IS it with our society that associates the word victim with weakness? Where the hell did that come from? Look in any dictionary and you will not find the word weakness with victim.  Being a victim does not make one weak. Were victims who were involved in the Holocaust considered weak? They were victims of what happened to them but that does not make them weak!

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Let’s take a look at the word victim. The word’s origin dates back to the 1490’s to 1500, according to the Random House Dictionary. The word originated from the Latin victima meaning a sacrificial animal. According to the World English Dictionary:

victim  (ˈvɪktɪm)

— n

1.	a person or thing that suffers harm, death, etc, from another or from some adverse act, circumstance, etc: victims of tyranny
2.	a person who is tricked or swindled; dupe
3.	a living person or animal sacrificed in a religious rite
Usage - Using the word victim or victims in relation to chronic illness or disability is often considered demeaning and disempowering. Alternative phrases such as who experiences, who has been diagnosed with, or simply with, and then the name of the disability or illness, can be used instead.

As a side note, I thought this description under usage was fascinating. Notice how the word “experiences” is preferential to “victim” since it is considered disempowering to be considered a victim. This is exactly how the word “experiencer” is used over the word “abductee” in ufology. If you are an abductee, you are considered a victim (powerless and underdeveloped); if you are an experiencer -- well then, all things are groovy. Bullshit.

Then of course there is the topic at hand, that the feminization of ufology is the cult of the victim. We are women, therefore we are victims, we are weak, and therefore -- we worship and wallow in our victimization.

Acknowledging the fact that you were a victim gives you power. Denying what happened to you robs you of power. I refer to the word “power” in the sense of active, willing acknowledgment of what happened. It is painful but it is necessary in order to become a whole person as much as you can.  If a person does not acknowledge what has happened to them then there is great danger. If you continue to deny what happened to you as a victim, the truth of the experience will come forth and manifest in ways that will rip your guts out in all their slimy glory as if you were gored on an ancient battlefield and force you to face the facts of your life.  This applies to anyone who has undergone a situation in their life where they were a victim. You have to address what happened to you, or else face the consequences.

This is a fact -- alien abductees are victims. They go through more than humanity can comprehend. It is essential that people -- both male and female who are abductees -- acknowledge their experience and find ways to cope. This does not mean they are weak. People resist wanting to be labeled a victim because it is considered a weakness in society. We all know what happens to animals that are weak in the wild; they get devoured pretty quickly by predators. It is the same in our modern industrial society -- the weak get devoured so nobody wants to be perceived as weak or vulnerable.

A comment upon one of my previous blogs stated: “You gotta watch that fear and the whole 'abduction concept' - which comes with a set of internalized victim values.”

Would you say the above to a victim of any variety of crime? Would you say this to a woman who was abducted by a group of men, held for hours, brutalized, and then left for dead? What is “a set of internalized victim values?”  What? How can somebody who claims to have had alien abduction experiences say this to me?  I suspect that this “set of internalized victim values” and “the cult of victimization” essentially mean the same thing. It is also interesting that these phrases both come from men when referring to women. One phrase was written directly to me as a comment upon my blog and the other was attributed to all women in ufology by the Magonia blog. As a society, we are associating the word victim with weakness.  I would argue that people who have been victims, been able to face what happened to them and move forward in life, are the strongest people on the planet; bar none.

Both men and women report abductions. Both men and women are victims of alien abduction. Both men and women are interested in ALL aspects of ufology. Unfortunately people will continue to cling to their sexist, outdated views in regards to any sector of society that involves female participation. How can humanity find and face any truths about an alien interaction with humanity when it can’t see the unconscious bigotry it demonstrates towards its own kind?

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For further reading on the topic of victimization, I suggest the following articles:

Published papers:

A. Leisenring, “Confronting ‘Victim’ Discourses: The Identity Work of Battered Women,” Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 29, Issue 3, pp. 307-330

D. Porche, “Men are Victims of Sexual Violence,” American Journal of Men’s Health, 2008

D. Spencer, “Event and Victimization,” Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2010

P. Roode, “Surviving ‘Acceptable’ Victimization,” Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, VII, 3, Summer 2009

Internet resources:

Victim Blaming: It’s Not About ‘Weakness’ 

http://dailyderrick.com/2012/05/11/victim-blaming-its-not-about-weakness/ 

Victim or Victorious???

http://www.thelamplighters.org/llblog01/victim-or-victorious/

Blessed are the weak: Victims take over from strong women in latest crop from Hollywood

http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/story.html?id=c6d544fd-5624-48cb-9190-4eba791992f6

Victims, victimization and victimology

http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335209807.pdf