A

s 
 
a 
young 
and 
impressionable child, the 
concept of gender and what 
it meant to be a “proper” girl were 
enshrined into seemingly every 
fabric of the world that surrounded 
me.
When I visited Target to spend 
my carefully accrued Tooth Fairy 
money, the segregated blue and 
pink aisles quickly indicated which 
section I should browse. The girls 
section was filled with gendered 
stereotypes to carefully cultivate 
a new generation of domesticated 
women 
through 
marketing: 
Instead of Lego sets, we were 
offered baby dolls that needed to be 
“mothered” by us with mock baby 
bottles and diapers; instead of Nerf 
guns, we were gifted Easy-Bake 
Ovens that introduced us early 
on to the concepts of cooking and 
baking; instead of Pokémon cards, 
we got to browse an assortment of 
plastic Barbie dolls who modeled 
how to girl-boss through women-
dominated fields of life while 
perfectly maintaining Eurocentric 
standards of beauty.

Concealed behind fuchsia plastic 
was the societal goal to slowly 
condition a generation of young 
girls to collectively understand our 
“proper place” in the world without 
asking any questions. While the 
boys got to be boys, the girls were 
fed discreet corporate messages 
about their predetermined roles in 
society.
While 
sex 
concerns 
the 
biological 
differences 
between 
females and males, gender is much 
more complex. According to 
 
Dr. 
Zuleyka Zevallos, a Peruvian-
Australian 
applied 
sociologist, 

gender is “a concept that describes 
how 
societies 
determine 
and 
manage 
sex 
categories; 
the 
cultural meanings attached to 
men and women’s roles; and how 
individuals 
understand 
their 
identities.” Gender, she explains, 
“involves social norms, attitudes 
and activities that society deems 
more appropriate for one sex over 
another.” She adds that gender is 
further determined by “what an 
individual feels and does.”

Y

ou’ve 
probably 
heard 
the names Johnny Depp 
and Amber Heard being 
thrown around recently. Maybe 
a meme here or there, or a clip of 
some movie stars in a courtroom. 
But what’s the scandal? Who’s 
suing whom? Isn’t Johnny Depp 
a pirate? As someone with a little 
too much interest in both “Pirates 
of the Caribbean” and the judicial 
system, I’m here to tell you exactly 
what’s going on and what the true 
importance behind the trial is.
Johnny 
Depp 
became 
a 
household name after his role 
as Captain Jack Sparrow in the 
widely 
popular 
movie 
series, 
“Pirates 
of 
the 
Caribbean.” 
As a family favorite, loved by 
children and adults alike, fans 
were devastated when, in 2016, 

rumors that Depp had abused his 
ex-wife, Amber Heard, began to 
spread. Almost overnight, his high 
reputation was slashed, costing 
him millions of dollars as fans and 
employers began to boycott him. 
As a beloved pirate-turned-wife-
beater, Johnny’s reputation and 

career were over.
Denying the abuse allegations 
from the beginning, Depp set out 
to save his reputation through a 
series of defamation lawsuits. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Opinion
8 — Wednesday, June 22, 2022

From The Daily: demystifying 
misconceptions about gun violence

I

n the past month, a string of tragic 
mass shootings have dominated the 
media. Witnessing the senseless 
barbarity has left many Americans in 
despair over what can be done to stop the 
monolith of gun violence. With increased 
media coverage and civic dialogue, 
the 
recent 
shootings 
have 
publicly 
demonstrated just how false common 
arguments against stricter gun control are. 
As Democrats in Congress push for even 
minor policy changes, ordinary voters 
have an opportunity and obligation to put 
the pressure that is clearly needed on our 
elected officials to prioritize gun control. 
In order to begin unraveling a system that 
has enabled repeated acts of gun violence, 
we must work to demystify the common 
misconceptions that prevent necessary 
change.
MISCONCEPTION 1: Arming good 
guys with guns can help to stop bad 
guys with guns
One widely accepted myth about gun 
violence prevention, especially touted by 
Republican members of Congress, is that 
providing guns to the “good guys” can help 
stop bad guys with guns. After all, if we 
arm our teachers or school security with 
ammunition and firearms, then they can 
take action to stop a shooter themselves, 
right?
Wrong. A perfect example of this myth 
in action can be observed in the recent 
school shooting at an elementary school 
in Uvalde, Texas, in which the shooter 
killed 19 children and two teachers. 
Despite the fact that officers of the Uvalde 
Police Department, a U.S. Border Patrol 
tactical team and deputy U.S. Marshals 
were all armed and on the scene at Robb 
Elementary, 77 minutes passed before the 
tactical team was finally able to enter the 
locked classroom and kill the shooter.
While the Chief of Police, Pete 
Arredondo, 
attributed 
the 
delayed 
response to “measures meant to protect 
teachers and students in mass shooting 
situations work(ing) against police trying 
to gain entry” — including the fact that 
the classroom door was “reinforced with 
a hefty steel jamb” to prevent forced entry 
from intruders — these facts do not change 
the reality that good guys with guns were 
unable to stop the bad guy with a gun from 
murdering innocent children.
In fact, a 2021 JAMA Network Open 
study that analyzed every incident 
from 1980-2019 in which “one or more 
people was intentionally shot in a school 
building during the school day, or where a 
perpetrator came to school heavily armed 
with the intent of firing indiscriminately” 
found that “no association” existed 

“between having an armed officer and 
deterrence of violence.” This damning 
statistic proves the unfortunate reality that 
good guys with guns are often unable to 
stop school shootings, even when they’re 
properly armed and trained to do so.
This trend can be further seen in the 
examination of other mass shootings in 
which armed officials were present at the 
scene. During the recent mass shooting at 
a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., in which a 
white supremacist targeted and murdered 
innocent Black shoppers, an armed 
security guard and former police officer 
named Aaron Salter attempted to stop 
the shooter with his weapon. However, 
because the gunman shielded himself 
using an armor-plated vest, Salter’s shots 
did not stop the shooter. Salter was 
ultimately killed, making him one of the 10 
victims from the mass shooting.
And yet, these armed individuals are 
not even responsible for being incapable 
of defending others from mass shooters. 
The fault lies within the fact that good 
guys with guns are rendered practically 
defenseless when faced against assault 
rifles, a popular weapon of choice among 
mass shooters. While the majority of 
shootings are perpetrated using handguns, 
assault rifles are significantly deadlier, 
explaining why some of the worst mass 
shootings have been perpetrated using 
AR-15-style rifles — including the Uvalde 
shooting (12 killed), the Las Vegas shooting 
(59 killed), The Pulse nightclub shooting 
(49 killed) and the Sandy Hook shooting 
(27 killed). The AR-15 itself is a destructive 
semi-automatic rifle which was originally 
“intended for the U.S. military” because of 
its ability to kill mass amounts of people in 
an efficient manner. Without the proper 
protection, even a good guy with a gun 
could be annihilated by the bullets of an 
AR-15-style rifle.
MISCONCEPTION 2: The “lone 
gunman”
Another 
common 
misconception 
surrounding 
gun 
violence 
is 
the 
perpetuation of the idea that one sole 
individual is behind the act. In reality, there 
are a multitude of forces and contributing 
factors that bestow these gunmen with 
the ideological methods by which they go 
about their sprees. Many conservatives, 
whether they be politicians or political 
commentators, are under the impression 
that the issue of mental health is the reason 
for the uptick in gun-related violence, but 
this is absolutely unfounded in terms of 
scientific and social evidence. To shift the 
conversation towards mental health and 
away from the actual problem of guns 
avoids the problem entirely and creates 
damaging stereotypes against those in 
America who struggle with mental illness.

I am a woman. But not in the way you 
may think.

What the Depp v. Heard trial means for 
domestic abuse survivors

Read more at michigandaily.com

Read more at michigandaily.com

THE MICHIGAN DAILY 
SUMMER EDITORIAL BOARD
SOPHIA LEHRBAUM
Opinion Columnist

 AMY EDMUNDS
Opinion Columnist

Read more at michigandaily.com

Design by Jennie Vang

Design by Tamara Turner

