Mr Tea, you said this case was 'utterly indicative' of whats fucked about our society. But this case and verdict were highly irregular. AFAIK there isn't a trend of privileged women gaining impunity from assaulting men (or other crimes) because their career is deemed more important. But switch the gender around and I think you could probably find many examples of this happening (and a lot more sexual assault and harrassment cases too). As baboon was saying these anomalous cases getting blanket coverage aren't indicative of anything really if you just take them at face value. And it just feeds the misogynist trolls and commonly-held sexist myths embedded in public attitudes.
In a way yes its more valuable to look at public reactions and attitudes, how the media portrays women (whether they are the victims or the perps of the crime) and general trends of violence, rather than picking on an anomalous example and declaring the decline of civilisation or whatever- you'll almost always find sexism hidden in plain view when women are being judged by the court, by the media or by the public - regardless of whether she is guilty or not.Clearly the public reaction to a case like this is far more important to you than the case itself, which is telling.
To be honest my first reaction was that it was quite an unusual case - a woman assaulting a man and getting away with it through privilege (though it can't be said that she had privilege over him, being a cambridge-educated white male himself). Then I thought, I bet the sexist media and the MRAs will have a field day with this and, lo and behold, I was right.
Then the reporting; photos taken from her facebook splashed everywhere (visible nipples: bonus!), she met the guy on tinder (so probably a slag then...), she's described as the 'Slasher Surgeon', info about her being abused in previous relationships and her 'troubled life' tucked away at the end of the article and more or less overlooked (or mocked in the comments). No surprises here then.
Then of course the usual palpable hatred of women in the comments boxes and on twitter.
So no, I don't think my reaction was bizarre or nutty at all actually.
edit, btw she apparently admitted a charge of unlawful wounding, so not 'literally attempted murder' then.
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