Through outdated stereotypes and normalized misogyny, sexism has been present in the judicial system for a long time. Although judicial figures are supposed to be unbiased, victims often receive unjust treatment based on their gender. The justice system consists of government laws and institutions that are created to protect society and maintain civil rights, while also punishing those who defy the rules. However, in a society filled with gender norms and political discord, it is not surprising for misogyny and sexism to get mixed into this supposedly neutral system. Liza Donnelly’s famous editorial cartoons have recently shed light on the topic and brought national attention to the injustice. Many of her illustrations became renowned for their …show more content…
Through the cartoons Abuse Playbook, When I Grow Up: Rape Allegations, and Victim Questioning, Donnelly’s illustration of symbolism, irony and diction exposes how the current justice system allows misogyny and sexism to flourish.
In order to highlight the absurdity that is misogynistic injustice and make the situation more impactful, Donnelly often uses irony in her editorial cartoons. In the illustration Abuse Playbook, Donnelly depicts a judge asking for a football player's autograph and completely disregarding the battered girlfriend of said player. Her depiction accuses the judge of caring more about the celebrity status of the defendant rather than the current state of the woman. While the standard expected of government judges is to be unbiased and neutral, it is ironic that one is depicted as favoring the male sex when it comes to female abuse and treatment. It is because of these sexist outlooks that even supposedly impartial figures are susceptible to bias and misogyny in their career. Another example of irony is shown in the illustration When I Grow Up: Rape Allegations, where it depicts a scene of children
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When looking at the illustration Abuse Playbook, the top panel shows 3 different women, however they are all in the same situation. Each woman exclaims a phrase similar to “He didn't mean it.”, “I love him.”, etc, all the while sporting multiple dark bruises on their faces and bodies. Compare this to the bottom panel with the football player and judge, where the also bruised girlfriend of said player says “It’ll never happen again.” (Donnelly). Because of the judges decision of not incarcerating the abuser, she convinces herself that he won't do it again, thus beginning the new cycle of abuse. This use of diction is strong because of its underlying meaning of true manipulation and gaslighting the women have faced in order for them to convey these words. It effectively shows the circle of abuse that women face in toxic relationships and how one can truly be forced to think something painful translates into love. The judge, blatantly ignoring the clear signs of abuse goes into deep rooted misogyny in men and how political power creates the expectation of righteousness, but is still clouded by sexism and misogyny. This unfair ruling only further fuels sexism and the cycle of abuse, allowing the male who was not convicted to later repeat his actions. Another cartoon containing diction pertaining to the effects of misogyny is Victim
Times Magazine said “Provided not only a breakthrough on the bench but a powerful push forward in the shamefully long and needlessly tortuous march of women toward full equality in american Society” ( Horner 62). Since the court was previously dominated by men, she made a leap by breaking the stereotype. O’Connor broke the stereotype of politics being mainly males. O’Connor was the first woman ever to take a seat at the judges panel. After President Ronald Reagan said that he was going to appoint the first ever female to the court (“Sandra Day O’Connor” 2011).
In a country where people are promised equal and fair treatment regardless of their gender or racial identity, Stevenson, through McMillian, shows the gory side of the reality that exists within the United States’ judicial system. A system that offers justice to some and victimizes
According to the research of Kimberly Lonsway and police sergeant Joanne Archambault, when an individual is raped in the United States, 96% of the time the rapist dodges the crime. The majority of these rapes do not go through the prosecution process and when they do, less than 0.2% of these perpetrators spend time in a prison cell (Krakauer 121). The main cause of this ongoing problem is the ineffective and unfair representation of rape victims by the justice system. Jon Krakauer argues this point in his novel, Missoula: Rape in a College Town and the Justice System, using narratives as his main focus of support. Through this use of narratives, Krakauer appeals to logos, encapturing the various actions and perspectives of those who played
This year at Elon University, all first-year students were given a summer reading. The author Bryan Stevenson, a gifted attorney, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative; fights to raise awareness about the injustices in the United States legal and social systems. Just Mercy, his book magnifies his early career, where he fought for people on death row. This book talks about the injustices that happened back in the 80’s and 90’s but, these same injustices by the police are still around today, but justified by law now.
This paper provides a critical response analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the author, Deborah Rhode’s, position in her article, Access To Justice. Accordingly, this exploration yields an evaluation through consideration of key questions and concepts with correlations to various week three materials pertaining to punitive justice, hence, the passage selection choice for this analysis is “Defining the Goal: Access for Whom? For What? How Much? And Who Should Decide?”, which emphasizes the socioeconomic issue of inequality of justice through assertions that a disparate proportion of the United States population lacks access to adequate representation (Rhode, 2004, pp.
This article analyzes the systemic abuse of executed Black ladies from the most punctual periods of American history. The most reliable consider Black female executions all through U.S. history is criminal equity specialists ' executions of Black ladies to a great extent for testing gendered what 's more, bigot abuse. This article also promotes our comprehension of the crossing point between gendered prejudice and the death penalty in the U.S. criminal equity framework by inspecting the relevant eccentricities offering ascend to Black female executions since the most punctual times of American history. From the times of servitude in which dark individuals were viewed as property, during that time of lynching’s and Jim Crow laws, the death penalty has dependably been profoundly influenced by race.
In conclusion "Just Mercy" serves as a powerful portrayal of racial bias in the criminal justice system during the late 20th century. Bryan Stevensons' narratives shed light on systemic injustices faced by African Americans and other marginalized communities. Supported by media sources such as The New York Times' report on racial disparities in criminal justice and scholarly articles on sentencing disparities based on race "Just Mercy" effectively demonstrates how pervasive this issue was. "Just Mercy," continues to show that it provokes contemplation expertly leads readers on an introspective journey through the shadows of our criminal justice system where we are confronted with the heartbreaking consequences resulting from racial bias. Through riveting narratives
Another quote that shows this well is “What woman here is so enamored of her own oppression that she cannot see her heelprint in another woman's face?” She asks the audience why they are so interested in seeing women hate each other. This brings the audience out of the ‘story’ and starts to connect back to real life. It is also successful because of this. One last quote to show this is “What women’s term of oppressions have become precious and necessary to her as a ticket into the fold of the righteous,away from the cold wind of self-scrutiny?”
Discrimination and racial disparities exist at every phase of the U.S. criminal justice system, especially when it comes to sentencing. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, as there are over 2 million people imprisoned today. The drawing is a visual representation of my annotated bibliography. In it, I stated that the criminal justice system is broken, as it discriminates against people of color. The left side of the illustration depicts the scene of the courtroom during the trial of a white defendant.
According to The University of Michigan's law education, African Americans are seven times more likely than white Americans to be falsely convicted of serious crimes due to their race (law.umich.edu). Bryan Stevenson who is a human rights lawyer and author wrote the memoir by the name of Just Mercy. This piece focuses on the idea that the criminal justice system is discriminatory. In this memoir, he defends and fights for citizens to protect their rights as a person. Bryan Stevenson beautifully utilizes strong word choice, repetition, and emotional appeal to emphasize and persuade the readers that the efforts to fight institutional cruelty and raise the most vulnerable to a “higher ground” is what matters most.
Within the proceedings of the criminal justice system, women are punished in very damning ways which raises questions surrounding potential reforms regarding the criminal justice system and the degree to which it is actually broken. Upon entering the proceedings of the criminal justice system, through the lens of a woman, it is a flawed experience. This is because of the ‘gendered’ criminal justice system. This means that this system itself is influenced by gender roles and stereotypes which already shows disparity between male and female treatment because of the social norms and values that underpin this system. This often consists of women being subject to harsher and more frequent punishments for either similar or the very same crimes that their male counterparts have committed, also conjoining with the fact that they often experience a greater mental and physical anguish as a result.
Erika Rackley’s Representations of the (woman) judge: Hercules, the little mermaid, and the vain and naked Emperor is a 2002 article that explores the position of the woman judge. The main argument of the work is that the marginalization of women in the judiciary comes as a result of the “Hercules” stereotype of a legal authority. It is fair to say that while the work is not an enlightening one, it stimulates the reader to ask important questions about the nature of the legal system. The article begins with figures on the presence of women in the judiciary and then addresses the reasons for underrepresentation. The author successfully links three different fairy tales to convey the image of a “hostile legal culture” in which both the woman
and Berland Associates from November of 2008, states that the majority of people in the United States view the treatment of women at home as equal to men, whereas in the press, workplace, political settings, or the armed forces, treatment does not remain equivalent in treatment (Scherer 26). Progress has made steady yet gradual milestones towards the goal regarding women’s rights, but when it comes to the question of when dramatic change should take place, “the time is now”
In “Girl Unprotected”, Sports writer and journalist Laura Robinson argues that if you examine the Judicial system, then you will find a strong bias against victims of hockey abuses with an emphasis against women. Throughout her essay, Robinson uses the case against Mike Danton and the NHL to emphasize the issues of gender inequality and the lack of recognition to the abuses in hockey. In her essay, Laura Robinson begins her argument by claiming that “women’s bodies were only allowed to be adjectives to describe men” (Robinson 326). By doing so, she suggests that women’s bodies are all that the men in hockey care about while their mind’s and talents are ignored and lack in value. To reinforce her thesis, Robinson also includes a quote from a
Consequently, there is evidence from studies that draw conclusions that there is gender bias in sentencing for both women and men. On the surface there appears to be a degree of preferential treatment or leniency in the criminal justice system. However, there are other factors that enshroud the whole aspect of biases that include class, race and the offence in question among others. There is need for the justice system to understand female offenders in order to be able to address it effectively and avoid the perpetual claims of bias which only signifies the