The recent Idaho College murders have opened a wider hole in the very old and serious argument about how dangerous it is for women to reject men in this day and age. Bryan Kohberger a criminology student who was accused of allegedly murdering four Idaho students during the month of November where if convicted he could possibly face the death penalty but the series of events that led to the murders show how much the simple rejection towards a man could mean life or death for a woman. 

It came to light that Bryan was private messaging one of the “female victims out of the four, he DM’s her in hopes of getting a response but once he dones;t get a response back he does not take that as a no or a signal to stop his efforts to get a response from her. Instead, he continues his unrelenting slew of messages in her DM starting in October that led the police to discover he cased the house at least “12 times‘ ‘ before he went through with the attack. Some believe the root of his motive stems from the rejection from one of the victims and this is not the first case that deals with men resorting to violence because a woman rejected their efforts. 

“Six women are killed by men every hour in a ‘global pandemic of femicide’…more than half of women and girls killed by men are murdered by their current or previous partners,” according to the World Economic Forum,“137 women across the world are killed every day by a partner or member of their own family – a total of 50,000 women a year murdered by people they know and should be able to trust.” Yet another thing women are still criticized for; ensuring their own safety. 

There are so many accounts of women telling their stories and cases about how at any age, they were faced with men never being taught what it means to respect a woman, respect not only their mind and body, but their decisions when it comes to either of those. 

“I once said no thank you to a man when I was 19 and didn’t have an excuse … and he punched me in the face. After that whether or not I have a boyfriend, I say I do. Being a woman is truly, constantly scary. It’s like existing on thin ice,” stated by actor Jameela Jemil in The Guardian. 

“I was walking into Walmart one night. My face was glued to my phone and I didn’t hear this guy trying to talk to me. He proceeded to call me a bitch and tell me he was gonna wait outside for me and rape me. Like why is that even necessary to say? How do you feel that’s an appropriate response?,” said a user in Buzzfeed. 

“When I was in high school, I turned a guy down and he threatened to strangle my dog with barbed wire and leave her body on my porch,” stated by Buzzfeed. 

Yet most still don’t understand why women are even afraid of saying anything remotely close to a rejection in fear of their lives, due to women being trained from an early start how much to be afraid of men. From carrying keys in between your fingers when going alone somewhere to making up nice excuses in order for men to back off but it still doesn;t work because most men believe they are entitled to a lot of things in their life, one of them including women. 

Most rejections are due to women’s need for self-preservation, it has been proven that men cannot take “no” for an answer. How is it expected for women to feel comfortable around men in any scenario if more do not realize they are a part of the problem?