feminist defence of the indefensible

[giyadas]

Story in the local echo and daily mail .

First off, I am not defending these girls actions. I think their behaviour is disgraceful. My problem is the way it's being reported. This was a minor scuffle but these girls are being portrayed as the worst creatures to walk the earth when I have actually witnessed worse by boy thugs . Yes, the guy got three years, deservedly, but didn't face the barrage of press hate that these girls have. The reports of the train station attack at the time were very matter of fact, but the girls attack was reported with a very different tone.
It really annoyed me but I can't rationalize it as clearly the girls deserve to be punished. The guy was punished yet no vitriol was heaped on him despite the more violent nature of the crime.

I feel like I'm being forced to defend people I don't really want to and it would be easy to join in slagging them to high heaven, but it seems so obviously one sided.

Any thoughts? Wouldn't blame you for ignoring this post, all the actions are indefensible.

I don't get where the feminist defence is? I was expecting the article to have framed it that way or something? Feminists don't defend women regardless because they are women. They might comment on the reporting as you have or the difference in sentencing as you have but I don't get how that would link to a defence of the actual actions.

the way you could talk about it without defending them would be 'Good to see the press condemning violence - now wouldn't it be great if every time boy thugs carried out similar attacks they got condemned that much too, instead of it just being accepted that men will be violent?'

(except that way it would sound like you were praising the Daily Mail, of course, which would totally count as defending the indefensible )

I think the only reason this had made the paper is because there happens to be some video of it. I'm sure if it had been a group of boys, and it had been caught on video, it would also have been reported.

One of the recent 'Big Questions' on the Nicky Campbell TV show was 'Has feminism encouraged female violence'?

Happily most of the audience didn't think so

rofl David!

Hi,I haven't disappeared. Wasn't sure how to word the title and did a bad job of it, sorry.
The echo link about the girls is actually quite matter of fact, the article that was on the front page yesterday was more detailed. Yes, I'm commenting more on the reporting, not defending the girls but when I was talking about it to a friend and DP, that was how it was twisted. (by friend, not DP, who's very pro-feminist)
I don't think it's because there was a video as there's quite a lot of low level anti-social behaviour like this yet it's not reported. For example one of the local shops often has groups of boys hanging around behaving like these girls but nothing made the news until it was held up at knifepoint. The shop has cctv so all the minor incidents could have been reported yet they weren't.
I think people are used to coming down hard on girls so when it's pointed out, they think you're defending them.

(sorry this post is a bit 'open your mouth and let your belly rumble' isn't it?)
Will try to find the Big Questions programme, the last one I saw with Finn Mackay was really good.

Seth - Your right, I really don't want to end up defending the mail