If feminism is for equality, why doesn't it demand the same standard of punishment as men?

Question

Why is feminism silent when Mary Winkler gets 7 months for shooting her husband in the back in cold blood?

Can we please stop pretending feminism is about equality already?

Answer 1

It's equality when it suits them. They're crying sexism over CEO's being male-dominated (though it isn't due to sexism but most working women making different career choices), but they don't seem too bothered about lighter entrance tests for women in firefighting and police (we're comprimising public safety for gender equality here) or that women are ineligible for the military draft.

A man would get a life sentence for that crime. Mary got away with seven months. She's not the only one. Andrea Yates, as you pointed out was actually labeled as the victim. If a man murders someone, he's cold-blooded. If a woman murders someone, she was emotionally abused and couldn't hold it in.

Could a man ever pull this defence off?

But then again, considering what feminism has been doing all these years, we shouldn't be surprised. Many of the things it has done are far worse than just getting lighter sentences for women

http://www.freewebs.com/feminism-evaluat...

http://www.rulymob.com/

http://www.ukmm.org.uk/issues/suppressio...

Answer 2

Feminism hasn't been for equality for 40 years.

Answer 3

because it is always so cut and dried. why ever do we even have a legal system then? Oh yeah...it's this thing called CONTEXT.

I try not to form opinions on legal cases where I don't know more than "so-and-so shot so-and-so" at risk of looking like an ill informed fool and I would recommend that you do the same.

and do you have evidence for feminists protesting the OJ verdict? or are you trying to say that murdering your wife for cheating on you is okay because he was a man?

way to go there butch.

Answer 4

Modern Feminism is entirely driven by underlying irrational fear and hatred of men and those who disagree.  It has nothing to do with equality.

Answer 5

Actually, in many cases, women get harsher sentences than men.

In 2005, Debra Lafave was sentenced to 3 years in prison and 7 years probation for statutory rape.

Also in 2005, Pamela Rogers was sentenced to 9 months in prison and 7 years and 3 months probation for statutory rape.  In 2006, she was sentenced to 9 years in prison for violating her probation.

In 1997, Mary Kay Letourneau was sentenced to 7 years and 5 months in prison for statutory rape.  This is one case where it certainly could be argued that the victim "wanted it", since he married her less than a year after her release.

In 1993, Joseph Buttafuoco was sentenced to 4 months in prison for statutory rape.  Why didn't men's rights activists protest his light sentence?

Answer 6

It does. Most feminists hate that women get let off easy.

Answer 7

ANY group who claims that they want "equality" really wants SUPERIORITY - double standards are part and parcel of the agenda, supposedly justified by the group in questions past inequalities. Therefore, it becomes a vicious circle of illogic...

Answer 8

Exactly. Personally, I believe women, due to their indecisive nature, shouldnt be allowed to vote. Most people believe women shouldn't vote except for women, and they don't count.

Answer 9

Smart people pick their battles.  I think her sentence is too light but I would be wasting my time by complaining about it.  After all, once a judge renders a sentence there is nothing we can do about it.  If anyone should make any noise, I would think it would be men since it would be pretty unlikely that a man would be let off so lightly.

Answer 10

Have you considered the term "equity"? It can connote fairness without suggesting that everything be identical.

Answer 11

Since the beginning of time,men and women have never been equal. By nature,men are stronger and are more direct thinkers and most are not as sensitive as women. Men are just ruffer and tuffer than women. Where women are softer and have a more round about thinking.Men are providers and women are nurturers.I`m not saying that is the way it is now,but that is the way it`s been through history.I think that what it boils to is that women want equal rights and don`t want to be treated like some kind of lower class citizen. Which is only right,in my opinion. Why is it that the male has bigger,stronger muscles and yet only women can bare children? Because thats the way it is ment to be.

The fact is that women are NOT equal to men just as men are NOT equal to women. Both fall into the HUMAN catorgory and neither one is better than the other.Women want equal say in what happens.This world is changing fast.Like children maturing at younger ages. Why is GOD the ruler on man and Mother Nature in the ruler of everything else? Because that the way it is supposed to be.

Answer 12

They don't want THAT much equality.  They only want equality when it benefits them.

Answer 13

I doubt that "feminism" has ever been about equality. It's more about hypocrisy and wanting to be superior.

Answer 14

I believe we are talking about specific cases and not seeing the whole picture.

As far as women getting the right to vote, a small group of women went on starvation diets, and were beaten and force fed because the government didn't want "dead women" on their hands. These women won the right for women to vote.

Yes, when OJ was set free because, "if it don't fit, you can't acquit." and paying for a "Dream Team" of expensive lawyers but the man is still very miserable living in a "free house" because of the laws in Miami where they can't take his house away from him, but everyone knows he did it and got away from being set to prison, he is in his won made prison.

The case of Mary Winkler was a form of mental abuse she claims from PDS and as she was on Oprah stated that her jail time was too short, She claimed her husband abused her and made her wear S****y clothes even though the two were regular Church goers.

In the case of Andrea Yates, the mother who drowned her children was being treated for mental illness and on Eflexor, a mood inhibitor. Who knows what the medication did to her mental state and her claims of saving the children, "from the devil" may have been her deep religious beliefs.

Nevertheless, when we talk about feminism and equality for genders, what about the notion for "equal pay for equal work and the fact that women still receive only $.77 to a man's $1.00? Or that women's reproductive rights are being attacked and some are trying to eliminate a young mother's right for abortions, or sexual discrimination in the workplace? Or why are more women sexual abused and fear bing raped? Why do some most women have to pay an extra $70-80 dollars a year on "feminine sanitary napkins" when men will never ever go through this. Why are women's fashions, hair styles, manicure and pedicures more expensive than a man's? Women with shorter hair still pay more at the hair salon than men with short hair.

Why are more and more young women have such "low self esteem in themselves growing up" and why are so many women victims of "The beauty Myth" and use the cardboard magazine cut-outs of fashion magazines as role models on what is in fashion and style these days?

Why are we fighting against feminism and saying it has ruined our famalies and this country and making more and more feminine when we should all be working together to help one another women and men? Instead we fight over "petty littel things" such as one specific law case, or one specific stereotypical repsonse as the corner stone of everything. Why are so many women and men afraid of feminism? Is it the word itself? Fem-i-nism which may sound more like fem-i-nize is that it? Men and women are afraid that if men are feminists that they will be "sissies" and not "real men?" Come on folks, really.

Some here have said, "you seem like a very intelligent man, but claim your a feminist..." I just feel that most women get pushed aside and we need to equalize the playing field more.  

Answer 15

Well feminism does not believe in equality, it believes in equality for women.  Women are at an advantage here so why would feminists fight for  true equality?  

Andra Yates just sickens me to no end. While PPD is a problem among many mothers it does not cause them to kill, that is caused by major psychological issues.  This is greatly more truthful when you can cause five of your own children a slow, painful and horrific death.  To me Andrea Yates belongs at the bottom of some secluded pond....or perhaps a jail cell entirely encased with her children's photos.  There is NO victim hood in someone who can brutally murder five children...none.  Many people have pressures forced upon them and when they kill, they are put away for life or killed themselves.

*steps off soapbox*

Answer 16

Yea the point is if feminists were serious about equality under law they would be protesting that light sentence. But why complain when its going in your favour?

Answer 17

The verdict and sentences are decided by a judge and a jury after they heard all the evidence.  They decided in the case of Mary Winkler that it was not cold blooded murder as you call it and abuse was  taken into consideration when a sentence is given.

Andrea Yates was considered insane on appeal and quite rightly was sent to a mental health facility.

Anyone who followed the OJ case knows he got off because he was able to afford a one of the best lawyers and  the police made various errors in collecting their evidence after the murders.  There are far more sections of society than the feminists who believed the verdict was wrong.  Are you suggesting he was abused or insane?

Answer 18

These women had never been in trouble with the law before, so there is assumption that they must have a mental problem and that is not a criminal offense.  Men cant seem to stop getting in trouble, the majority of prisons are for men, that are repeat offenders.

Answer 19

Because Feminists want to pick and choose what they are equal on.

You may hear them complain about not being to be a fortune 500 CEO, but you certainly never hear them complaining about not being eligible for the draft.  

Answer 20

I agree the jury erred but the system is fallible as is shown by the fact that she got 7 months more than Robert Blake or Phil Spector.....not really productive to try and portray it as a "feminist" issue.

And....really.......c'mon........think you'd be hard pressed to make a case that Andrea Yates was not insane by any definition.

Answer 21

I don't blame feminism for the light sentences. It's a squeamish  double standard that's been around for a long time. Women were and still are assumed to be the weaker and nicer s*x, and so hurting them is considered to be unfair and downright criminal--even when it is a just consequence of wrongful actions.

And now with the cult of victimhood in firm control, women are also assumed to be the victims, and therefore must be given more slack than men.

If men are expendable, then so are women-- that is, *if* we are aiming for true equality. Nature doesn't have a problem with meting out consequences. Someone bugs a grizzly bear, that bear doesn't discriminate. Man or woman, the idiot is toast.

Now, I'm not some ogre that hits women... in the *face*. The last woman to attack me unprovoked got dragged to a corner by the ear and whupped until her @ss glowed like Rudolph's nose. If a woman is going to act like a violent toddler in need of discipline, then far be it from me to deny her needs. ^_^

Answer 22

I'm sure that the judge and jury were not all feminist women so there must have been some other circumstances that lead to the unfortunate events that lead to the death of Mary Wrinkler's husband.  Consider what happened with OJ; he killed his former wife and received no punishment for it.