Joe Campbell
They stopped briefly at a statistical display of female advancement. They were particularly interested in figures that showed how women are catching up to, and even surpassing, men in smoking, drinking, swearing and swindling. Advances in female arson, assault and assassination also caught their attention.
“Women have become more assertive,” Molder said, when they had seen enough.
“Really?” said Bimson.
“They’re doing something positive about spousal abuse.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“Yes,” Molder said, “they punch, kick, bite, choke, beat up, stab and shoot their spouses almost as often as men do.”
“They’re achieving equality.”
“It’s a genuine advance, and the police have taken notice.”
“Good for the police.”
“Just the other day they responded to a 911 call from a man who defended himself against a floor polisher his wife was hitting him with.”
“Did they make an arrest?”
“Absolutely, and he’s still in jail.”
“That really is progress,” said Bimson.
“The courts have taken notice, too,” Molder said.
“It’s about time.”
“Women who stab or shoot their spouses can avoid conviction if they show they’re responding to past abuse. “
“That’s a creative defense,” said Bimson. “Can men use it, too?”
“If they did, no one would believe them.”
“I guess men have to work on their credibility, not to mention their creativity.”
“Drunkenness is also a creative defense,” Molder said.
“I know,” said Bimson. “For years abusive men have got off easy because they were too drunk to know what they were doing.”
“Not any more,” Molder said. “Increasingly, men who plead drunkenness can’t make it stick.”
“What about women?”
“Women are developing a more nuanced approach.”
“That’s encouraging.”
“Recently, a woman charged with strangling her husband pled not guilty because he was too drunk to know what she was doing.”
“Do you think she’ll win?
“It doesn’t matter,” Molder said. “If enough women adopt her defense, they’re bound to win at some point.”
“If they do,” said Bimson, “it could drive men not to drink.”
“Did I mention trophy hunting prosecutors?”
“What sort of trophies?”
“Men, especially if they’re white and preferably rich.”
“Being rich, white and male makes you a trophy in a spousal abuse hearing?”
“It does if a zealous prosecutor gets on your case,” Molder said.
“That seems unjust to women,” said Bimson. “Being white and rich should enable them to be trophies, too.”
“It’s an injustice I think they can live with.”
“From what you’ve been telling me,” said Bimson, “I doubt they’ll have to live with it for long.
“I’m not so sure,” Molder said. “The domestic violence establishment has been slow to recognize that women are as good as men at spousal abuse.”
“The establishment minimizes female accomplishment?”
“I’m afraid so,” Molder said. “That’s why we tend to overlook the equality women have demonstrated in this aspect of their relationships.”
“Incredible,”
“Not in light of popular culture. For generations, society has treated female violence against men as a joke.
“How demeaning,” said Bimson. “Unless we take their abusiveness as seriously as we do men’s, women will continue to feel undervalued.”
“The establishment doesn’t realize that women who beat their spouses need help,” Molder said.
“More effective weapons?”
“More effective counselors who understand their problem.”
“I thought their problem was that, physically, women are the weaker sex.”
“Verbal abuse can be more devastating than physical battery,” Molder said.
“If so,” Bimson said, “ men’s problem is that, verbally, they’re the weaker sex.”
“Physically or verbally,” Molder said, “abusive men are finally paying for centuries of spousal violence.”
“I didn’t think abusive men lived for centuries.”
“Today’s men,” Molder explained, “are paying for what their predecessors did.”
“And today’s women are getting the revenge their predecessors were denied?”
“It’s known as intergenerational justice,” Molder said.
“Tell me more,” said Bimson.
“It’s the postmodern version of the sins of the fathers being visited upon the sons to the third and fourth generation.”
“And then the visitation ceases?”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”
