Wendy McElroy on the ‘Battered Woman Syndrome’
Columnist Wendy McElroy has recently reprinted one of the more saucy quotes from her book, “Sexual Correctness: The Gender-Feminist Attack on Women:”
Contra the New Feminist Jurisprudence
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which Congress approved as part of the Omnibus Crime Act, advances the gender feminist goal of redistributing power from the ruling class (men) to the oppressed class (women). VAWA defines ‘gender-motivated crimes’ as federal civil-rights violations, thus converting domestic violence into a hate crime. Under these circumstances, the law recognizes men and women as antagonistic classes to be governed by different standards of law.
The success of the ‘battered woman syndrome’ as a defense in murder cases also illustrates how standards of justice have been warped by the politicization of violence against women. Gender feminist Lenore Walker — director of the Domestic Violence Institute — has been instrumental in promoting the battered woman syndrome. Her ideology is clear:
“A feminist political gender analysis has reframed the problem of violence against women as one of misuse of power by men who have been socialized into believing they have the right to control the women in their lives, even through violent means…”
Walker defines what constitutes a battered woman:
“A battered woman is a woman who is repeatedly subjected to any forceful physical or psychological behavior by a man in order to coerce her to do something he wants…”
Even without physical violence, a woman can be deemed ‘battered’ if, for example, her husband neglects her in favor of work.
Walker’s view of women as helpless victims who can be devastated by such ‘abuses’ as neglect is being translated into legal precedents. Walker argues that ‘battered wives’ become so demoralized that they lose the capacity to leave the abusive marriage. When such a wife strikes out at her husband, the violence is considered to be self defense. This is true, even if the wife has never been physically threatened or harmed, and even if she uses deadly force.
Traditionally, the self-defense plea required that the accused had been in ‘clear and present danger’. Now Walker claims that physical danger is not necessary for women to avail themselves of this defense. The Battered Woman Syndrome appeared as a defense in murder cases in the late 1970s. It has gained in acceptance.
In Canada, the battered woman defense was originally introduced as a means of reducing a charge from murder to manslaughter. It has been extended to obtain complete acquittals, even in cases where the man had no history of physical violence.
Similar court cases are beginning to occur in the United States. In 1987, for example, Marlene Wagshall shot her sleeping husband in a fit of jealousy. He survived, after surgery which removed large parts of his stomach, liver and upper intestine. Elizabeth Holtzman — a feminist D.A. for Brooklyn, N.Y. — had the charge reduced from attempted murder to second-degree assault. The grounds: Wagshall uncorroborated claim of prior battery. She served one day in jail, with five years’ probation.
Source: http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.718
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