Feminists

I was cooking the evening the verdict for Lorena Bobbitt came in, and our guest were two young men who are the sons of two different friends from back home.

Anyway, I whooped approval. Loudly.

Because of the years and years of men murdering women and getting away with it - weekends in jail for one murderer after the judge expressed how he understood the murderer's motive, and how he was an otherwise good guy, and other assorted slaps on the wrist.

You should have seen the wide eyed look on the faces of those young men. They were shocked.

I explained to them my reasons but they still looked at me like I was just plain wrong.

I laughed at them.

I don't approve of what she did but I was glad for the verdict. Meant the jury understood and accepted that she had been an abused wife.


Back home there was a case where a woman killed her abusive husband. The jury refused to believe she was abused because she was taller than her husband and weighed more than him - by only a little on both. And - one juror said the woman was unattractive and probably caused her husband embarrassment for being unattractive, which to his thinking proved he loved his wife, so he wouldn't abuse her.

So even though there were hospital records of her abuse and police reports of her abuse, she was still found guilty of murder.

Some people think that's a one-off but women have been convicted time and time again for defending themselves against an abusive spouse or lover. They get the blame for the abuse, for staying with their abuser, and that somehow the abuse wasn't that bad.

And there is a history of men basically getting away with murdering/abusing their wives. Thanks to the ignorance of the people on the jury and a sexist judge.

Some people think that because spousal abuse is taken a wee bit more serious now that that's how it has always been.

It hasn't and I'm old enough to know better.