Domestic Violence and Child Custody Cases

Did you know that in about half of the 100,000 contested child custody cases each year in the United States, custody goes to the father? Custody goes to the father even though at least one-third of these fathers have committed domestic violence against the mother or child! It is actually proven that mothers are more likely to win if they do not report abuse against the father. As time goes on, women's believability and concern just keeps getting drug down in comparison to men's believability. Why are men starting to triumph over us? Brutally abusive fathers have been deliberately intensifying their abuse so they can force the mothers to complain and gamble away any chance of getting custody of the child. Afterwards, the father then gets revenge by filing for custody and trying to deprive the mothers of the children. Other abusive fathers use the "friendly parent" concept to force the mother to pay them child support and deprive her of any child visitation rights. Friendly parent statuses are a form of Parental Alienation Syndrome, which is a theory that most accusations of child abuse made during a custody battle are actually fraudulent. The consequences of what the abusive fathers are doing can be disastrous. According to the Center for Judicial Excellence, an estimated 75 children nationwide were murdered between June 2009 and April 2010 by abusive fathers who had won the custody battles. Does this seem right to you? If I was the mother in one of these cases I would not stand for this type of mistake. I would fight for my children and not give up until I knew they were safe and back into my arms. How can courts make the mistake of sending children to live with their abusive parent? This kind of situation should not be tolerated and it should be ended immediately!

http://cp.revolio.com/issue/17835 page 47

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYWxfxMOUO4

Being Transgender in a Society

If you are a person like me you should not care who people are or who they use to be, you accept them for who they are. People have a right to change who they are if they do not feel comfortable in their own skin. If you are a girl but your personality fits better as a guy, then I think it should be okay for you to change. You should do what makes you happy and not worry about other people's opinions. But in most cases transgender people are scared to come out to their family, friends, or loved ones. Transgender people face quite a few challenges. It is not an easy process. They can be victims of discrimination and hate violence. There is also a long process of getting appropriate identity documents after they have had a sex change. These issues affect thousands of people every day, people of all ages, classes, and ethnic groups. This week in my Women's Studies class I had to read a couple stories about gender. One that really caught my eye was "(Rethinking) Gender" written by Debra Rosenberg in 2007. This story made me think about what really makes gender. It is okay if you are born a different gender than you feel like you should be. It is just the way your brain starts working and thinking. Everyone feels a different way, you can't always assume that people are born the way they want to be. If you are transgender, do not be afraid to come out and tell people. There is help out there and people that care about you. If you need a friend, I am here for you :)

http://www.hrc.org/issues/transgender.asp?gclid=CK7O1MO1wKkCFQpm7AodYGhehg

Women's Double Standards

In today's culture a woman's sexual experience whether the lack of or the excessive knowledge is highly judged. In the male society the more women a man has had sexual encounters with, the more popular he becomes. In contrast a female who has had many sexual encounters is considered to be a whore or portrayed in a negative way. On the other hand, a woman is expected to have a natural sexual knowledge and be able to fulfill a man's desires even if they have never had any experience. In an interview from Bianca Penaloza, a senior at Coral Gables High in South Miami, she says, "It's a huge double standard. If you're a guy and you sleep with everyone you're automatically cool. If you're a girl and you sleep with everyone you're automatically a slut." The media does not tell the story of this dangerous double standard is correct and should not be challenged. The media is trying to tell us that if girls are bad or sexually promiscuous it is okay to punish them. They have no sympathy. The only message that men get from the media is that you are not cool if you don't have sex. The media wants you to think that the ony guys not having sex are the nerdy ones that cannot get any girls to have sex with them. Another woman's double standard is the double personality of balancing being a stereotypical housewife during the day and then becoming the sultry seductress at night. I don't think any of this seems fair for women. We should be treated the same as men in my opinion. Anyone agree?

http://www.jou.ufl.edu/sji/1999/opinion_03.htm