As a society we seem far more willing to ask the difficult questions of circumstance, context and agency when it comes to women perpetrating a crime.
What are her living conditions? Where did she come from? Has she experienced abuse, crisis or trauma? Is she dealing with poverty? Or under pressure at home or work?
Who is she?
We ask the right societal questions, to better understand (whilst not condoning) the behaviour itself.
But we don’t do this for men as readily.
No, that man is the victim of himself, of a system he created, that he has control over and rules himself.
His problems are not, and can never be institutional or societal, or the result of entrenched sexism.
His problems are solved through talking, and ideally crying only.
We don’t do this for women.
We don’t tell women to go cry about their problems, we rightly make societal change, we enact legislation, we form committees, departments and research groups for their wellbeing, we advocate for them, we campaign, we fight and talk on their behalf.
Why not for men too?
Sources
[1] https://tinyurl.com/yew3puc7
[2] https://tinyurl.com/uhpav35z