Some feminist memes and toons.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

23. Sure. Here's some supporting data.

Please note, I'll not get into a duel of anecdotes, as that's not useful at all. There are terrible one-off decisions being made around custody cases every day. So let me point you to this. I think it's reasonably balanced:

"In the old days, the courts used "the best interest of the child" as the explanation for why they gave custody to one parent or the other. Old Bureau of Census statistics indicate that in the early 90s the custody continued to be 90% to the mother, 9% to other family members or child shelters, and 1% to the fathers. Usually, "best interest of the child" was shorthand for "the kids go with mom and dad gets to see the kids ever other weekend, split of the holidays, and a week or 2 in the summer."

In those days, it was exceptional for even those fathers whose ex was verifiably drug addicted, alcoholic or mentally ill, to win custody of his children. (To be fair, it should also be said that some fathers got the court to believe this even when it wasn't true--I have met many women who didn't have custody, who didn't seem to fit any of these categories.)

The courts in the old days weren't particularly shy about what they were doing with custody. One judge in the South was quoted on the record as saying he never gave custody to fathers because in his experience on the farm he had never seen a calf follow a bull around in the pasture; the baby calves only followed their mothers."

Look at that first Bureau of Census statistic. 90% vs 1%. If there was a Bureau of Census statistic that said that nationally, whenever police went to break up a bar-fight, they arrested black people 90% of the time, vs 1% of the time for whites, would you suspect the police might be possibly racist? Or, would you be a Rush fan and say that that blacks are 90 times to cause violence as whites do?

There are people who do evil and hurtful things all the times in custody cases. Including both sides lying. Constantly. I will also say that courts are being a bit more even-handed these days - which is actually a good thing. But gender roles are still heavily in play in many parts of the country concerning this. And if you're entirely in favor of gender roles when it helps you, only against it when it doesn't, then you're very much a hypocrite.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community