Get the facts first

I have been receiving e-mails about Catherine Kieu Becker, the 48 year old woman who got arrested for cutting off her husband’s penis after she had drugged him, tied him to the bed, cut his penis off and then thrown it down a garbage disposal.

I have noted that women are quite divided on this issue.  Some have been very approving even setting up Catherine Kieu Becker fan pages on Facebook.

Sharon Osbourne in her talk show had a laugh at the man’s expense, saying that she thinks “it’s quite fabulous”, after admitting that she doesn’t know the circumstances or why he filed for divorce. She also referred to it as “hysterical”.

Then there are women who are totally disgusted by what happened.

So, what should a feminist take be on an event like this?  Well, a feminist should not make anything of it until she knows the full facts.

If this woman did it out of shear malice then she needs to have the full might of the law thrown at her.  Feminism is not about siding with criminals just because they are women.  If we feminists are supporting female crimes against men then clearly we have lost the plot and need to take sometime out to figure what it is that we are suppose to be trying to achieve. 

Feminism is about women taking responsibility for their own lives not about becoming demonic ass holes. 

So my advice to the Sharon Osborns of the world are “get the facts before you start passing judgment!!!!  Its women like you who enable men to claim we are too emotional and hysterical to be taken seriously.”

On the other hand I do believe that this event should re-focus us on domestic violence and martial rape.  Because it happens so often we tend to NOT be horrified and disturbed by it as much as we should.  In fact for many, it’s just become part of life.

We do know that in Becker’s case they were going through a divorce so something was amiss in that marriage.

In fact it is a known case that many women in jail today who committed a violent act against a husband or boyfriend were been continuously abused.  These women just couldn’t take it any longer and something inside of them just snapped. 

What has always appalled me is that these women were acting in self defense and are now being punished for trying to either protect themselves or their children.  But that is the price you have to pay when you are a woman living in a male dominated world.

The world is run by men which means that the laws are created by men for men.  The laws are not created to protect women and girls in anyway, but rather to keep them living in fear and under male authority.

The US and UK are strait white male controlled societies which explains why we see so few white males in prison for abusing women.  Often when these white males do end up in prison, it is when they have committed a crime against a woman who belongs to another white male and now this white male wants them in jail for raping or abusing his property.

But at the same time let’s not forget that domestic violence and martial rape is also rampant in non-white countries such as in Asia and Africa where non-white males still see women and girls as nothing greater than a piece of property that can be treated in any manner the male deems appropriate.

In the case of marital rape and domestic abuse I would say an incident like Becker’s would be nothing short of self defense and in that case I would say she deserves the support of feminists and women as a whole.

So instead of judging a specific event that we don’t fully understand, let’s rather use this as an opportunity to re-dedicate ourselves in the fight against male privilege and supremacy because until such time as male supremacy is totally destroyed, women and girls will continue to be raped and abused and the perpetrators will go unpunished.  And when women do take the law into their own hands to try and protect themselves they will be the ones who will be punished.