Smashing the Stereotype: Women Always Win in Family Court
Patriarchal propaganda strikes again
I find trigger warnings to be fairly useless. Most put them on a piece whose title functions effectively as a trigger warning for that particular topic. If I open an article about navigating the legal system in the wake of sexual assault I know the minefield I’ve just walked onto. I don’t need an additional warning tacked on.
As a survivor, I get triggered daily. Usually by things people don’t think to put a warning label on. Lately, it’s been from the misogynists trolling feminist articles with their whataboutism. I’ll be reading an article about the motherhood penalty and some idiot in the comments will be spouting off about how the family courts are biased against men. They say that women automatically get full custody and men have to fight for the barest scraps. These are usually also the same people saying that the courts will take half your wages to give to the mother. They tend to go on about how she doesn’t deserve that money and speculate on what she’s spending it on (hint, they never, ever believe it’s being used to feed, house, or clothe their child).
I’ve been hearing this line of argument since my dad fed it to me when I was a child. It had no merit or basis in fact then. It has even less now, though its popularity remains…
