Padaviya

Statement of Facts & Law

again and again and again and again—mother’s arrested and imprisoned for “not doing more” about the violence their partners commit.

outside of how just plain old fucked up this is to charge mothers for something they absolutely did not do (how many fathers are arrested for “not doing more” when their mentally ill wives kill all the children?), I think it’s important to note that if a child is being abused—99% of the time the *mother* is being abused too. As such, the question is not why didn’t the mother do more, but when is society going to do more to empower and help women in abusive situations—and when is it going to do more to hold men accountable for the abuse they commit?

Is criminalization of abused mothers really the way to stop child abuse? Is constantly implying that women should’ve had more control over their abusive male partners holding men accountable?

(via radicallyhottoff)

Did that commentary really need to conflate violence with mental illness?

(via tal9000)

Yes it did. because a HUGE population of mothers who kill their children are dealing with untreated mental illness that have gone untreated because of misogyny or poverty and culminated in the murders of their children after society ignored or blatantly dismissed them with “I don’t care how “overwhelmed” you are, you walk away and take a deep breath rather than killing your children!”—a huge population of those women are sitting in low security prison hospitals to serve out their sentences—only getting the help they fucking needed after having lost their children and being criminalized by the nation/state. Which continues a pattern for other groups in US society as well—the only place they can get treatment is prison. 

no, not all mothers with mental illness are going to kill their children. but not treating mothers with mental illness because “taking deep breaths” should be enough or because their love for their children is supposed to be strong enough to guide them through actually physical and biological problems, or because their dick husbands want more kids and meds get in the way of that or because grandma is an old black woman who is probably looking for handouts rather than an a desperate woman who will face down the possible consequences of a violent system to get help for her family—that has consequences. 

Mothers are expected to be the ultimate virgin mary. When a mentally ill woman who has gone untreated *because she was expected to be the ultimate virgin mary* kills her children—the men in their lives who continuously knocked them up or denied them treatment (whether because of their desire to get them pregnant or because social services knows more about her well being than she/her family does, or because the corporation that elected them thinks that cutting off social services will be the best way to pay for their tax breaks) do NOT serve jail time. Mothers are expected to self diagnose and treat their manic depression or psychosis, stand up to their abusive male partners, keep their children safe at the cost of their own lives, die in child birth from preventable/treatable conditions, not being lying whores about their husbands abuse in an effort to keep the children away from them, etc etc etc etc….but when a man pressures his wife into not taking desperatly needed medical treatment so that he can impregnant her for the 6th time in 7 years—she goes to jail and we feel sorry for him. This happens repeatedly, has happened repeatedly for years, and me pointing to it has nothing to do with conflating mental illness with murder and everything to do with interrogating white supremacist heteropatriarchy that supports men denying woman treatment for mental health and then criminalizing them when they break. 

(via radicallyhottoff)