Double Standards

Misogynists love to downplay women’s abuse stories, and portray them as overreacting when guys do horrible shit to them. These same people are usually homophobic as well, and it’s funny because they tend to freak out if a gay guy even talks to them. Think I’m being unfair? Well, there is a legal defense that’s admissible in court in 47 states called Gay Panic Defense, and basically it is to claim that people who beat or murder gay or trans people can be innocent due to temporary insanity because of an unwanted homosexual advance. It has been successful in some cases in America, as well as in other countries. So there are straight men who can justify beating someone to death for hitting on them, but women are supposed to just deal with harassment and abuse because, sorry, that’s just how guys are. They are against any laws protecting women, and they don’t feel that a man’s shitty and abusive behavior should matter or preclude them from any status or job, whether it’s being a musician or actor, or being a CEO or a Supreme Court Justice, but you can beat the shit out of a gay guy who makes you uncomfortable. That seems fair.
Keep in mind that there are plenty of cases where women have killed men who were abusing, beating or raping them, and more often than not, those women go to jail for murder with no leniency. Just look at the Cyntoia Brown case. Men even use twists on existing defenses on the books to get away with murdering woman. Go read about Lenora Frago. Women can’t count on those same types of laws to defend themselves. Read about how Marissa Alexander went to jail for firing warning shots at her abusive husband because a Florida court said the Stand Your Ground law didn’t apply. Yet most of the harassment and abuse directed at women isn’t even illegal. Corporations are left to police themselves a lot of the time, and most often cases have to be tried as civil cases, and then women are cast as opportunists. There’s a huge double standard, in a world full of double standards, and it’s pretty fucked up.