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Editors:
I just saw your report on the murdered baby.
Unfortunately -- but not surprisingly -- you failed to
address the only germane issue in the whole putrid
affair.
Blaming the boyfriend -- as the parents and
townspeople do, and as your spin implied -- is
ludicrous. That is facile scapegoating, but males in
America should be used to it by now.
It is illuminating that the good folk of the town
"rallied behind" the person responsible for the
child's death.
Let us imagine, just for a moment, what the reaction
of the good folk, of the courts, and of your show
would have been were a man found responsible for
leaving a baby to freeze to death in the snow. I can
tell you -- he would have been lucky to survive long
enough to make it to the courthouse, and if he did, he
would be in prison until his toenails fell out. In
the prisons we maintain for men, no doubt he would
have been beaten and sodomized in line with the jungle
justice doled out by the other prisoners. He wouldn't
have been weeping crocodile tears at the Women's
Correctional Country Club.
In the unlikely event that he were ever released from
prison, we can be sure that a roomful of mickey mouse
memorabilia and christmas gifts would not be awaiting
him. I don't think the townsfolk would be waiting to
greet him with open arms and forgiveness, either.
The real issue here -- the one we can't talk about in
America, and damn sure can't report on -- is the
infantilization, coddling, and massive overprotection
of the feminine, especially of girls, along with the
comprehensive double standard of justice in America
based on gender. Now that's not a report we're likely
to see on MSNBC, is it?
The American media, and American culture in general,
shares partial culpability for the death of this
child. As long as we hold women and girls to one
standard of "justice," and men and boys to another, we
can expect that many more of "daddy's little girls"
will feel sufficiently privileged to do whatever they
damn well please, to whomever they please. Why
shouldn't they? Even the murder of a child elicits
only sympathy when you're one of the Protected
Classes.
"There's a babe in the arms of a woman in a rage," Bob
Dylan sings, and he ain't just woofin'. From SIDS to
sentencing, from the schoolyards to the skyscrapers,
we are a culture in total gender denial, with males
scapegoated and punished in every cultural context,
and females deified and excused. When we entitle,
privilege, and protect one class of persons over
another, these are the results we must expect, and we
are ALL responsible for the outcome.
Until the American media finds the courage to report
on that, we will all suffer the consequences. It'll
be a long, long time coming.
Michael Kramer
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