There are a wide variety of views on whether or not women are in fact receiving different treatment in comparison with men in terms of capital punishment. I feel that women are definitely being held to a different standard than men that places emphasis on their sexuality and gender, a phenomenon not found in the cases of accused male criminals. While such attention is placed on every case where a woman is on trial for murder, there are some cases where it is made public that the woman will be viewed as a person rather than as a female. I feel that this just further evidence that the fact that the person is a woman has a great affect on the way in which she is viewed by all involved, ranging from the jury to her own defense lawyers. The problem with the entire situation is that women cannot escape being a little different than a man, which is understandable considering that our justice system was developed with the idea of males in mind. Therefore, women fall into a strange situation when accused of any kind of violent crime because they are not the status quo. As Renee Heberle writes, “While the state sanctioned killing of women has yet to be normalized, women’s bodies as sexualized objects have been regarded as the appropriate targets of extralegal violence and as undeserving of the full protection of the state.” I find this prevents women from being treated equal in the justice system, regardless of whether such equal treatment will result in more or less executions of women, and therefore not on par with men. While the idea still persists that women are in need of the protection of men, we will have serious issues with legally executing women. Doing away with such an idea will help to further the advancement of women, considering we haven't needed the protection of men in a very long time. We have come a long in terms of equal treatment but until women can be tried in court in the same way as men then women will still be oppressed by the constant scrutiny of how they stack up to the general expectations of how a woman should look and act.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Equal Treatment
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10 comments:
It's just ironic that in order to further the advancement of women in society, we have to advocate for the punishment for women. But I definitely agree with you that a person's gender and their sentence for a crime should have nothing to do with one another. However, the connotations placed on women may not be innate, but it still has strong traditional ties and I don't think there is anything you can do to persuade people to think differently. We can all logically say "oh women and men should be treated equally" but psychologically I think we're all bound by certain ways of thinking caused by habit; I don't believe people can change their prejudices in this short a time.
I agree with the notion that men and women need to be considered as equals in a court room. Not only is it unfair to men that women may possibly receive less severe punishments for similar crimes, but it is also degrading to women. By not giving a woman the same punishment as that of a man, we are telling a female that she is inferior to man, or that she is not capable of enduring an equal punishment because she is too weak. If courts do assign equivalent sentences to both genders, our justice system is making a statement that there is no difference between sexes. If the United States’ justice system does not try women as equals to men, we are only increasing the gender equality gap. In our nation’s history, women have made considerable gains such as the Nineteenth Amendment and the Equal Rights Amendment. Women, however, still have many obstacles to overcome before being considered equal to men, the justice system being one of them.
Your statement that the founding fathers created many rights with the intention that they would be for men is a very interesting observation. This statement got me thinking about how certain rights do not make sense anymore in modern society. The punishments given to women under the American penal system is one example of what does not agree with what the founding fathers may have originally created.
Women have advanced so much over the past few years. Women such as Madeline Albright, Rosa Parks, Marie Curie, and Mother Theresa are some of the exemplary women who have demonstrated to society that women are capable of just as much as men. With so much equality being shown to women, how is it possible that women are still being considered different species when it comes to punishment? This seems very unfair and irrational in my opinion. Females may have certain physical and worldly roles that maybe different from men but by no means should this be a reason for them to be considered for less harmful punishments.
If we continue to make exceptions about who should receive certain types of punishments, the entire system will become disorganized and ineffective. If we can make an exception for one person, then why can’t we make it for someone else as well? Thus, if doubts about the level of punishment for a certain group of people such as women are being made then it maybe an indication for the overall ineffectiveness of the punishment itself.
I am very confused with your arguement. I think if you made it more concise and picked a particular argument the post would be a lot more influential. The topic you are discussing is really interesting and could have many important discussions, but I think at this point in the blog project you should narrow your topic down and pick one.
Your highlights many aspects in which it is harmful for women not to be tried the same way men are. This definitely grasps readers’ attention and gets them interesting about the issue. However, I would suggest that you focus on one specific argument rather than stating several. Also you need to focus more on how to solve these problems, and what will happen if your problem is not resolved. Try to connect this post more to your theory post and build on it. This way you will have a foundation for your argument and can state its effects in the future
It is fine in a blog project to discuss many issues, but the amount of issues you discuss in this blog makes the post almost impossible to understand. There are too many points (good points, but still too many).
I think that you make causa relaionships well. You explain how ths history of women in society has caused the U.S court rooms to not want to execute women. That makes sense.
I am slightly confused. I've read your other post and I tought that your argument brought about some good ideas. I'm not sure, but I think that your argument was specifically on how we, as a country, emphasize "equality" and yet we don't punish equally based on gender. I think that you should make a specific argument in the same way that you did before. The ending paragraph had me feeling that you contradicted yourself. You may not have, but you might want to make it clearer.
I think that your posts are very interesting and thought provoking because it is something I have not really thought of before. There are so many arguements and they are all good but you might want to focus on one or two to make your arguement more clear. Your relationships work well and allow the reader to follow your train of thought which is good, however there are so many relationships you need to focus them.
Hey Jan... I like your topic. Just would just like to know more about the historical development of why you say that the court was meant for men. This statement of yours caused me to think about the witch trials of Salem. I think that there is much to explore there in terms of gender and death by trial. In many other cultures around the world, women are more prone to stoning and death due to they simply being women and 'lower' in society. Could this have some link to your issues today?
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