December 05, 2006

Cathy Seipp Is Not Making Sense

This is a pretty amazing string of non sequiturs -- it's not clear that any two consecutive sentences have any logical relation -- but I think my favorite part is the next-to-last sentence:

For some reason, though, the feminist establishment seems to worry more about masculine girls or effeminate boys being beaten up than they do about much more common ordinary heterosexual crimes of passion.

Because the feminist establishment never promoted battered women's shelters, or marital rape laws, or the Violence Against Women Act, or... GAH!

Posted by Matt Weiner at December 5, 2006 09:19 PM
Comments

Well now, be fair: she's not saying the feminist establishment doesn't care about the normals, just that it cares more about the freaks.

Posted by: The Modesto Kid at December 7, 2006 06:32 AM

Cathy Seipp appears not to know what "assault" is. She'd probably be against calling it a crime. I'm not an expert, but I believe that "assault" is threat, such that the threatened person is in fear of harm. The actual harm (breaking a chair over someone's head) is "battery." So there might well be a gray area in which "trash talk" shades into assault. "yo mama so fat..." is "trash talk"--but what is "I'm going to rip your lungs out"? It might depend on the speaker and hearer. If the hearer is actually intimidated, and reasonably so, it's assault, I believe (warning--I'm no lawyer). But whether someone reasonably fears can be subject to dispute.

Posted by: Matt's mom at December 7, 2006 11:47 AM

OK, I found a website with the Pennsylvania statue defining assault. Both causing bodily injury and putting someone in fear of imminent bodily injury are included.
§ 2701. Simple assault.

(a) Offense defined.--A person is guilty of assault if he:

attempts to cause or intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury to another;
negligently causes bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon; or
attempts by physical menace to put another in fear of imminent serious bodily injury.

Posted by: Matt's mom at December 8, 2006 10:59 AM

Arrggh! For "statue" above, read "statute."

Posted by: Matt's mom at December 8, 2006 11:00 AM