Too Sad to Joke About

Too Sad to Joke About - September 11 all but wiped out what had been for me, up to then, the saddest story of the year - the Andrea Yates case, which went to trial yesterday. It brought up an interesting question: in a land where we're all supposed to be equal before the law, are women just a little more equal than the rest of us?

Feminist groups are demanding Yates be released to treatment - that post-partum depression is the villain, not Ms. Yates herself. Imagine a man trying to skate on five murders by claiming he was depressed? Conservative feminists have their own take on this.

In many areas of the law - for example, rape shield laws, which are in the news with the final disposition of the Jovanovich case, and various campus behavioral codes that put the burden of proving innocence against virtually any sex-related charge on the men - women risk being infantilized by the law. In the workplace, they're perfectly equal, of course - but in court, they're weak little creatures that must be deferred to and defended.

It's not a news flash - feminism isn't about equality any more. It's just depressing to see it playing out over the lives of five children.

Ah, well. Back to the real war.