Why is it worse when a mother kills her child than when a father does? In this country, domestic violence — family terrorism — happens all day every day. Women and children beaten. Women and children held hostage. Women and children killed. And when a woman kills her abuser, the reports never comment that she snapped. Reports, by news outlets and the police, almost invariably mention how premeditated the act was.
Tell me why you read the Glass Castle and hate the mother more than the father. I know you do. That scene where the mother’s in bed hoarding chocolate while her children dig through garbage cans for food. Never mind that the father attempts to prostitute his daughter. Never mind his alcoholism, joblessness, brawling and disappearances. Why doesn’t the mother protect them? How could she allow this to happen?
And that’s the word isn’t it: allow. We believe fathers brutalize children with the mothers’ permission. So women are guilty because they let men hurt their children AND they’re keenly guilty when they hurt their children. Tell me why? Because we expect women to protect children no matter what the circumstances? Because we expect less from men? Because men are basically savage, and the only thing between them and brutality is women? Because mothers are protective and fathers aren’t? Tell me. Explain it to me. Because I think it’s bullshit. I think fathers can be every bit as protective and loving as mothers. I think fathers are just as culpable when the child is injured. So explain sentencing differences to me. Explain public outrage when a woman kills her child compared to a man killing his child. It’s a statistical anomaly, mothers killing their children. You’ll notice the opposite isn’t true.
Why, in the family, are women always the bottom line? Why?
