Judge Removes Art About Domestic Violence So It Won’t Prevent Seeing Both Sides Of The Issue
Thanks to Ben Atherton Zeman for passing this along:
Court art removed after complaint
Photo collages on the walls of the Thurston County Family and Juvenile Court
building were taken down Monday after an Olympia resident complained they
discriminated against men.“When you go into that court, you’re in a very vulnerable state,” Jamie Powell
said after he raised the issue Monday at the Thurston County commissioners’
public meeting. “When you go in there and see that kind of thing, how does that make you feel about your chances of being treated fairly?”The five wood-framed collages included photos and writings about domestic
violence and wife abuse, along with a national domestic violence help-line
number at the bottom of each one. They had been on display for four years.Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham said Monday he received the collages from a state official at a domestic violence summit four years ago. Wickham said he put the artwork aside because he did not feel comfortable displaying the pieces.
“I would not have put them up myself for exactly those reasons,” Wickham said, referring to concerns such as Powell’s. “We try very hard not to present the appearance of favoring one side or the other.”
Memo to the judge–are you suggesting there is a pro and con to domestic violence???
Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities, Gender-Based Violence
Even reading the descriptions, I still don’t get this. It just seems so strange. Maybe if I saw the artworks I’d feel differently, but it seems like a very odd thing to get upset about. Surely the message is clear - violence is bad? Why would his sons misunderstand that?!
Nope, don’t get it.
Thanks for the story though - put a link up on Dollymix.
Did the artwork have a message saying ‘all men are violent I ask myself? Now if it did this would be discrimination against men but instead the posters were showing the reality of male intimate partner violence against women. But increasingly the excuse ‘this is discrimination against men’ is being used to reify gender inequality. Perhaps there should be no coverage of murders because this would violate a person’s right if they were accused of murder from receiving a fair trial.