I also had no idea what the new poster was referring to, but apparently a woman named Jodi Arias is being tried for murder in Arizona.
I couldn’t help but notice the OP’s subject was “Have we ever executed an attractive female” and then in the body of the text he asks about “white” females…
How organized does the execution have to be?
“We” executed Bonnie Parker, she was supposedly quite a looker.
I think the OP phrased this pretty clumsily, but I took his overall meaning to be more or less as follows:
“In the US, the traditional conventions of female beauty tend to identify young, physically healthy, graceful-figured regular-featured white women as most attractive. Has such a woman ever been executed for a capital crime? Or is there some kind of cultural prejudice operating that interferes with the ordinary processes of criminal justice to prevent judicial killing of a woman conventionally identified with our societal ideals of feminine attractiveness?”
I’m not sure that phrasing is any less clumsy, to be honest, but I think at least it gets at what I take the OP’s point to be about certain possible effects of persistent sexist/racist/“looksist” prejudice in our society.
This may be the case. However, attractive women are more likely to get the things they need and want in life. This makes them less likely to turn to crime in the first place, and exponentially less likely to end up on death row. Of course, attractive people **can **still be sociopaths and murderers. But when you look at the path of least resistance for a young uneducated black male (gang, crime, drugs) versus the path of least resistance for a young uneducated attractive white woman (stripping/porn/trophy wife, possible motherhood), it’s easy to see why more of the former end up committing crimes worthy of execution than the latter.
Not to mention, abusive women are more likely to assert dominance via emotional and verbal abuse, which are not crimes. Men are more likely to assert dominance via physical assault and use of weaponry, which are crimes.
I thought that verbal and emotional abuse was a crime, at least as it applied to children. It should be; it’s no less effective than physical abuse.
It wasn’t exactly random. She was mentioned in the OP.
Yes, but I for one didn’t reread the OP before I read the post that revived the thread. (Usually when threads are revived, I jump to the first new post.)
Threats of violence are viewed as criminal by society. Verbal abuse is viewed as mediocre parenting or bullying–it’s typically considered a mean thing to do, but it’s not exactly against the law. Verbal abuse also exists on a continuum and may be perceived differently by different targets, unlike assault (which is binary and leaves behind physical evidence). If my mom told me I looked like a whore nowadays, I’d laugh in her face, think she was going a little more senile, and make fun of her behind her back later. But the same words when I wanted to wear some light makeup to my first middle school dance? I cried all night. So it’s difficult to draw a hard line in the sand–where does criticism end and verbal abuse begin?
Not to mention, a great deal of verbal abuse goes on either without a witness, or with captive witnesses who will never confess (like other children) out of fear for their own safety, worry of becoming a target themselves, or simple ignorance. A lot of victims of verbal abuse (particularly children) aren’t even aware that they’re *being *abused. That’s just how mommy has always been.
Verbal abuse by itself *can *be a crime in some jurisdictions, but it’s not universal. I can’t see the law being applied often, only to the most egregious incidences (like when the target commits suicide). And still, only if it can be proven by a recording or third-party witness. In this case, proving abuse in the absence of physical evidence is *incredibly *difficult.
IANAL, I’m happy to be proven wrong by one. This is all based on my life experience, verbally-abusive relatives, and a few google searches.
**** Have we ever executed an attractive woman? Hast thou never heard of Frankie Silver? Remember: “Frankie and Johnny were lovers…”. Hanged in North Carolina, don’t remember when.
Middle aged women can’t be attractive?
:dubious:
Bonnie Parker wasn’t really that good-looking:
She also wasn’t executed. Ignore the pictures of Faye Dunaway. They didn’t even try to make the actors look like the real people.
Martinez is unwittingly (which should be dibarrable__) personifying the unbelief and belittlement abused women fear and which keeps them in most instances from turning in their abusers. Don’t you all see that? He’s dumbfounded that she doesn’t see the inconsistency in claiming abuse but not even recording it in her journal–or not reporting it even to friends–or saying “you’re the best”. IDK whether it was indeed self-defense or not ; but if she hasn’t swayed most of the female jurors by today, I’ll eat my hat.
:smack:I meant ‘disbarrable’-if that’s even a word.:mad::smack:
Depends on your definition of “executed”. She wasn’t executed by a State after a fair trial, but I’d say for sure she was executed. I’m not sure how you could argue otherwise.
Yes. I’m sorry. New to this site.
Bonnie Parker did not photograph well, but eyewitness accounts are unanimous in describing her as attractive. The person in most of the photos in the link is an actress.
You can’t see how anyone could argue otherwise? The definition of execute is genreally something like:
“to put to death especially in compliance with a legal sentence”
So I think it would be quite easy to argue otherwise, since there was no legal sentence. You could, of course, make the argument that this was a de facto execution, which I guess is what you are trying to say, but to claim that there is no counter-argument is frankly ludicrous.
Welcome to the community. You might want to take a look how people around here do things. The posts that get the best responses are ones that are clearly written and that offer sufficient background information to let people know what you’re talking about.
Statements like this:
… will probably not get the kind of reaction you’re looking for, particularly because the case you’re posting about is not one that anyone has actually commented on in this thread. If you take some time to think through what you’re trying to say and offer a coherent statement, then you might get a better response.
Thanks. Funny, I write a little newspaper column here in town and I hear that too!