37. Respect – Aretha Franklin 1967
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB
Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me)
A little respect (sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me)
Soooo, I’m up for jury duty soon.
‘How’s this relevant to a blog
about women in the 2020s?’ you ask.
Well, once I received my notice
from New South Wales Communities and Justice I thought something along the
lines of
This will be a hassle.
Then my thoughts moved to
This could be interesting.
Finally I landed on
I might have been called up as
a randomised representative of society, but they’re not going to pick me.
Why are they not going to pick me?
Well, I’m an educated female that
is capable of thinking for herself. Solicitors, who are predominantly male,
don’t want my type anywhere near their juries. Solicitors prefer the uneducated
as they believe they can be more easily lead down a path of their choosing.
They also prefer males as they can communicate with them man-to-man. There
also appears to be a general perception that educated females are overly
opinionated (Who, me? Nooo.).
So while I’m a randomised
representative of the community, a select few are likely to effectively decide
that I’m not worthy of representing the community as I’m likely to be a
trouble-maker that they can’t relate to.
Even if I were to be selected as
a juror, I’d wager cash on it that there will be a beyond middle-age white male
that self-appoints as the head juror.
Don’t get me started on how
warped this situation is when a large proportion of court cases are for crimes
against women (rape, domestic violence, even break ins and thefts are largely
targeted at women).
So Lady Justice may be blind, but
the system she oversees is not showing women the R-E-S-P-E-C-T they deserve.
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