This manual was a project of the Northwest Women's Law Center, Washington State NOW, Washington Women United, and the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, and funded by the Ms. Foundation for Women. Help was also received from the Seattle Office for Women's Rights, a government agency of the city of Seattle. Is it any surprise that this manual is biased?
The stated goal of the manual is to "support efforts to expand state bias crime laws to include gender." But it is clear that the intent of the manual is to protect women and punish men. Even though the manual uses the gender-inclusive phrase "gender bias", it is obvious from the underlying assumptions, from the examples given, and from the crimes highlighted that the legislation this manual supports is for one and only one gender, and therefore biased itself.
"A gender bias crime is a criminal act that is directed at a person because of bias against the victim's gender." So far so good. But the manual then makes several questionable assumptions, all leading to a very biased approach.
One underlying assumption of the author is that gender bias crimes must be cross gender crimes: man against woman or woman against man. This eliminates from consideration the largest group of criminal offenses: man against man. I suspect many of the offenders in this group would not even consider doing something similar to a woman. Yet this manual does not consider such a situation a gender bias crime.
This assumption also excludes woman against woman crimes. Recent research indicates lesbian relationships suffer a high rate of domestic violence. But this manual does not consider this a gender bias crime even though the author focuses considerable attention on husband against wife abuse.
In short, by using this cross-gender assumption, the manual ignores many crimes where men are the victims and women are the perpetrators.
The manual also focuses only on those crimes which are predominately man against woman (sexual offenses), or at least where the perception is that they are predominantly man against woman (domestic abuse.) It is no wonder that it can then conclude that "the overwhelming majority of gender bias crimes are committed by men against women."
What is the real purpose of this obviously biased legislation and manual? I think the answer to this question appears several times throughout the manual. Here is one example: "Prosecutors, for example, may ask why gender bias crime laws are needed to deter or punish perpetrators since many crimes against women already carry substantial penalties. The answer to this is that there are many misdemeanor crimes against women that do not carry substantial penalties." There it is. The purpose of this paternalistic legislation is to protect women from even minor crimes. And to punish the men who commit them. Meanwhile, the vast majority of victims of crime are male.
What can we do to stop this misandrist attitude and legislation? (The regulation, by the way, is already on the books in 14 states.) I see two general approaches. Fight the legislation -- perhaps after the election of 94, representatives will be less willing to cater to every whim of feminists. Or try to make it gender inclusive -- nothing shows how ridiculous most feminist legislation is than extending its benefits to men.
In either case, get your free (so far) copy of this manual. It is very interesting reading. And you may want to send copies to your legislators as an example of the extremism and egocentricity of feminism. Contact NWCAMH for your copy ASAP, at:
Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, PO Box 16776, Seattle, WA 98116, 206/233-9136
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