I really should put on my flame-retardant suit before posting this.

[kellinator]

According to CNN, Mary Winkler, the woman who shot her preacher husband, could go free today.

I mention this mainly because something about this case has always smelled funny to me, and I've wondered why, as I have deep sympathies for those in abusive situations and absolutely no doubt that some preachers are abusive jerks and most of my friends and family felt that was exactly what happened in this case and he got what was coming to him. But there was just something about the way the abuse allegations didn't come out until she'd had time to plan strategy with her lawyers, the fact that her testimony didn't seem to match up with her original statements, that has made me wonder if the justice system got played this time around. 

I think it's that I keep coming back to one little detail, a detail that's gotten perhaps the most attention, a detail that seemed in the eyes of small-town Tennessee such an Affront to Southern Womanhood that that nasty man got what he deserved:

The stripper shoes.

Remember, there were claims of all sorts of deviant sex, and then it comes out in court that he wanted her to wear stripper shoes. Good grief, I think I had more deviant sex than that this morning. Are stripper shoes really so scarring that a request to wear them during sex can put a person in the realm of battered spouse syndrome?  

Is Tennessee really that shocked by stripper shoes? I know they have stripper shoes in Tennessee. My cousin's girlfriend wore them to my grandmother's funeral.

Comments

[sophocles.livejournal.com]

It's my personal credo to look after those weaker than myself. Sometimes it means taking a punch. Sometimes it means listening. Sometimes it means telling them to get off their ass, buck up.

You are who you choose to be. By the sounds of it, you stopped choosing to be a victim, and did so without choosing to be a killer.

[sophocles.livejournal.com]

You missed my initial point entirely.

[sophocles.livejournal.com]

Wow. This is officially gotten retarded.

We agree that Crying victim, rape or abuse falsely is- in your words "despicable" I will add that it does more harm to actual victims of rape and abuse.

Now I will make my point again, before telling you to go away.

Just because your wittle feelings are hurt, doesn't mean you've sustained lasting psychological damage.

Rape means there was force, either through physical, or chemical- and no I don't mean getting drunk and bad decision. I mean *being drugged*

Abuse means to actively harm.

Okay... one more time... I'll be even less polite this time.

STOP ENABLING A GENERATION OF WOMEN TO BE SHEEP. IT DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD.

[sophocles.livejournal.com]

And yet your destructive ignorance will continue.

[polychromatic22.livejournal.com]

I agree that generally the word rape is overused, however...
Coercion does exist.
As a society, we accept that those who are in a position of authority have the ability to use coercion to sexually assault those beneath them.
It would behoove you to realize, therefore that many rapists use common instinctual tactics to assert positions of authority and then coerce.