How the legal system is biased against men
This article is a segment of a larger article
In a paper titled “Who Says It’s Still a Man’s World? Questioning The Myth of Male Privilege in America”, author Tina Currado has a lot to say about how the legal system generally favors women :
In today’s American culture we are spoon-fed one alarming statistic after another reminding us that women are at risk as we are more likely to be assaulted and mistreated due to men’s supposedly oppressive nature. There is a tendency to blame men for any perceived slights upon women and because of advocacy research geared solely towards women’s issues, we concentrate our efforts in preventing harm and injustice for women only. As a result, we make the mistake of ignoring or dismissing hardships that men face in America today. We do this because of the popular belief that men are the privileged sex in most aspects of our society, so when there is obvious bias against males in family law, criminal justice, and overall popular opinion, our American society shows a staggering lack of empathy for men.
In present day, women claim to continue in the struggle for equality in a patriarchal American society. The supposed evidence of this patriarchy are statistics that claim women are still suffering injustices in many areas; namely, equal salaries, holding highranking positions in government, marriage and family life, and violent acts against female victims. Advocacy research tends to highlight statistics that lead the public to believe that American women are still being held back and abused, so it is a common practice to omit positive statistics showing the incredible progress we have made. It is also common practice to cite statistics and automatically blame oppression instead of considering plausible reasons that could explain how the statistics came about (Sommers, 2004). For example, studies tell us that there is an undeniable wage gap (Population Reference Bureau, 2007), but we are remiss by refusing to discuss the possibility that the wage gap exists because men are more likely to enroll in science and technology fields, while women, of their own choosing, lean more towards careers in the social sciences (Population Bureau, 2007).
Though feminists claim their research is done as a means to provide awareness and equality, what it truly does at this stage of the game is pin one gender against another. Advocacy research claims women are left wanting and men are the cause of our plights, but if research were to be conducted for all human rights and not solely geared towards the feminist agenda, we would find that men are not privileged and naturally oppressive. Studies would show there are situations where men certainly do not dominate despite this theory of male advantage.
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There is undoubtedly a need for a women’s rights movement in many third-world countries but not here in America. Women have made tremendous advances here in America and now advocacy research sponsored by women’s rights groups does nothing more but create a bias against males. It ignores the suffering that men face particularly in family law and criminal court proceedings when the victim is male.
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It’s true that while many women are climbing the political ladder, most of the officials are male. However, one would be hard pressed in current times to find evidence that our male leaders create laws to benefit males only. With women making up slightly more of the voting population, (US Census, 2010) it makes sense that male politicians would cater to women’s wishes in an effort to secure a re-election, and that is, in fact, exactly what is taking place. Just one example is Joe Biden, current Vice President and sponsor of the Violence Against Women’s Act. Biden was best known for this legislation that focused mainly on women’s rights and safety before he became Vice President. Another example and latest development is what is referred to as Obama Care, a 907 page document that outlines special considerations for women’s health issues but does not do the same for men’s health (healthreform.gov).While it is true that men make up the majority of political officials, there is little evidence to suggest that typical middle-class men benefit from this supposed male advantage. The average American man who wishes to marry and have children doesn’t appear to be privileged at all. In fact, if one were to weigh the pros and cons of men marrying today in America, they would find that in this aspect, patriarchy is no more. Men have much to lose should they choose to marry and father children, and the statistics alone might be enough to convince many American men to opt out of marriage and fatherhood. Many of these statistics show that men are at a serious disadvantage concerning their status in the family and most feminism advocates simply ignore the bias shown in favor of females in American family law today.
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President Obama addressed American men not just with a message of respect for all of the dads who provide both economically and emotionally for their children, but that address ended with a stern reminder that the deadbeat dad scenario is all too commonplace. […] It is simply unheard of that the president, or any other kind of high ranking political figure or celebrity, would dare to chastise mothers during any kind of public address, and especially on Mother’s Day. Yet, again, for some reason, men are expected to take this kind of criticism and bear it with no complaints and no grievances.
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This claim that we are a society that “fosters and tolerate violence against women” is a bold statement to make. Yet, statements like these when they are constantly repeated convince a population that women are heroes when they brutally injure or kill a man. True, studies claim that men are more likely to perpetuate violence, but statistics show that male-on-male violence is much higher than that of male-on-female violence. So one many ask why the need for primacy for female victims when discussing violence awareness and prevention.
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When one is presented with studies that claim women are just as likely to perpetrate violence against a man, and women are more likely than males to hurt their children, one might ask if this is the case then how do we explain why more males are serving prison terms than women? Similarly to family court judges showing partiality to mothers, studies show that criminal court judges do show preferential treatment to female offenders (Anderson, Spohn, 2009). If women are sentenced then the length of prison time is shorter than those given to males.
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When one is presented with studies that claim women are just as likely to perpetrate violence against a man, and women are more likely than males to hurt their children, one might ask if this is the case then how do we explain why more males are serving prison terms than women?