A jury of 12 men found her innocent. A woman could not do such things they said. Blood on her hands she safely walked the glass floor...
“Lizzie Borden took an ax, gave her father 40 whacks.
When she saw what she had done, gave her mother 41.”
“The prosecution presented an overwhelming case of circumstantial evidence; Lizzie’s jury of twelve men acquitted her. Some think Lizzie’s verdict was ‘jury nullification’ – when the jury ignores evidence. It was said the jury didn’t believe a Christian young woman could have killed.”[1]
It makes little difference whether Ms. Borden was, in fact, guilty or innocent. The point is, despite damning evidence, she was never seriously threatened with prosecution in any case. Those twelve chivalrous men found her “innocent” after deliberating for little more than one hour.
In this way, Lizzie Borden was a woman protected from sinking to the extreme bottom—in this case, the bottom of a jail cell. Like innumerable women before and since, she was a woman walking upon the Glass Floor.
The Glass Floor
by NCFM Chicago Chapter President Tim Goldich
Throughout history, whenever Woman looked up, she perceived what we now call the Glass Ceiling, a sort of semi-permeable membrane composed of social conditioning, gender roles, tradition, bias, and various legal and sociopolitical structures. In looking down, however, she might have noticed that she was walking on a kind of Glass Floor composed of all the same stuff.
As the Glass Ceiling, in myriad ways both nebulous and concrete, has always tended to thwart Woman’s rise to the top, so the Glass Floor, in myriad ways both nebulous and concrete, has always tended to safeguard her from sinking to the extreme bottom.
Throughout history, the Glass Floor has protected women from sinking to the bottoms of mine shafts, prison cells, and foxholes. The Glass Floor has acted as partial insulation between women and the dark side of the world and human nature as well as insulation between women and most of life on earth’s most deeply brutal, filthy, arduous, corrupting, and hazardous realities.
Through the Glass Ceiling a woman could view the tip of the success pyramid and see that it was mostly male occupied. In looking down through the Glass Floor, however, she could view the vast base of the pyramid and see that it too has been occupied mostly by men—men who were trained to kill in order to protect being killed or maimed by the thousands and the millions on battlefields (many tortured mercilessly in prisoner-of-war camps for months or years).
Many of these men end up on the streets to join the 85 percent male street homeless. Others end up imprisoned. Less than a third of men are veterans, yet more than half of the imprisoned are veterans. Thus veterans too often join other men—protector/providers corrupted in the pursuit of money (the root of all evil)—to be suffocated and tortured by the thousands and the millions in the penal system.
Consider also men obligated for toughness, strength, and courage who, throughout history, have been killed or maimed by the thousands and the millions through hard labor, the use of heavy machinery, and countless other at-work hazards. In recent decades women have comprised 45 percent of the workforce but a mere 6 percent of all work-related fatalities.[2] In keeping with being more loved, women are better protected.
Moreover, one woman’s floor is another man’s ceiling. A hefty proportion of men have always felt trapped beneath the Glass Floor down at the base of the human pyramid. When stigmatized prisoners, war-torn soldiers, and disabled laborers look up, the Glass Ceiling they experience is the Glass Floor women walk upon. Men have always occupied both extremes, the most and the least enviable positions on earth—the latter in far greater numbers than the former. Meanwhile, women have largely occupied the middle ground. In my view, that is neither “oppression” nor “victimization;” that is an even deal.
If we don’t see it that way it’s because conditions for women are not normally compared against conditions suffered by men occupying the true bottom rung. These “garbage men” and their sufferings have little presence in our minds and in our hearts.
The opposite of love isn’t hate; it is indifference. As Woman has been given reason to feel intellectually invisible, Man has been given reason to feel invisible with regard to caring, concern, and compassion. Only those men who perform, achieve, and succeed rise to respect and visibility. Thus, only the elite male is present enough in our minds to compare against. Naturally, if we only compare conditions for the average woman against conditions for the elite male, women will seem to be the powerless victims every time.
Though false, this conclusion is the standard conclusion only because it sustains a beloved illusion.
[1] http://www.karisable.com/lizborden.htm, retrieved 03/15/07.
[2] Farrell, Warren, Ph.D., The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex (New York: Berkley Books, 1993) p.106. “6 percent of all work-related fatalities.” Men comprise 94% of all work-related fatalities due to on-the-job injury (disease-related deaths caused by on-the-job exposure are not included in this figure). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health NIOSH, (Morgantown, West. Va.), on-line database titled “Basic Information on Workplace Safety and Health in the U.S.”
Whoa this is too real, accurate, and relevant in these times we live in. That being said, omg plz remove this before women call you sexist, politicians renounce you, and Chivalrous (brainwashed) men hang you! Great piece!
"[1] in the Viet Nam war over 50,000 male military personnel died, so did eight military personnel women; and very few military women have died in wars and military actions since then compared to dead guys"
Because women are only recently even being allowed into combat roles – kind of hard to be killed in combat if all the big brave men tell you you're too delicate, so you should stay behind. It's easy to sound all victimised when you don't actually take into consideration the fact that men decided that only men could die for their country, not women. >.>
"[3] Not only are more women now entering fields once dominated by men, they are generally being paid more too, especially in the professions, substantially more"
In most, if not all negotiable contract work in these male-dominated fields, women are paid around 70% what their male co-workers are.
"[3] Not only are more women now entering fields once dominated by men, they are generally being paid more too, especially in the professions, substantially more"
In most, if not all negotiable contract work in these male-dominated fields, women are paid around 70% what their male co-workers are.
Please cite. If this were true in any field at all, to be paid less to do the SAME work, then the employer would have been sued to oblivion by now. The "70% of pay vs. males" is one of the most persistent myths in feminism.
The number is 70% of total earning over a lifetime of work. This includes the fact that women generally go into fields that pay less (ex. teaching vs. engineering) and are more likely to stop working to raise a family.
By implying that women would be willing to be paid 30% less than their male co-workers, you are insulting the competence of professional women in: not knowing the value of their work, choosing to be paid less, or being terrible at negotiations . Thus, rather than supporting your claim that women are discriminated against and not being provided equal rights and opportunity, you imply that women are unable to fully utilize opportunities gained and must be protected from their own incompetence.
Women are actually paid about 8% more than men in parallel positions (assuming they have the same position, training, hours worked per week, time with the company, etc). That 70% of a man's salary is an AVERAGE of every registered male and female in the country. If you break it down, women tend to choose professions with lower pay and lower risk than men do. it's the equivalent of a McDonald's worker complaining they don't make the same as an Alaskan crab fisher or a roughneck.
Hey look. He used a children's rhyme at the beginning. That's how you know it's all TRUE! 🙂
Lizzy Borden committed her crimes in 1892, over 100 years ago. Times have changed. Women now serve and die in the military. Women are now incarcerated in greater numbers and are put death. Women, in increasing numbers, are entering fields of work historically dominated by men. If you are going to use an example, then use one relevant to today's world. Pulling out a trial that occurred over 100 years ago before women even had the right vote is disingenuous at best.
Ok, let’s try this: [1] in the Viet Nam war over 50,000 male military personnel died, so did eight military personnel women; and very few military women have died in wars and military actions since then compared to dead guys [2] The Department of Corrections in California recently release thousands of women because of prison overcrowding, they relesed no men under that program [3] Not only are more women now entering fields once dominated by men, they are generally being paid more too, especially in the professions, substantially more. So, there’s some relevant contemporary examples none of which will please you. By the way, even though it was over 100 years ago that Ms. Borden was found innocent by an all male jury, it’s clear that their chivilrous thinking prevails today, don’t you agree?
Throughout history, death by childbirth was an expected tragedy. There is another glass "wall" that no man will ever cross, and that is to risk his life every time he had sex. Between the 1600s and late 1800s in this country 1 in 8 women died during childbirth. Although the mortality rate officially stands at 1 in 100 deaths, the average number of pregnancies a woman had was 7 to 8. A man also won't have his blood pressure or dozens of other health issues manifest themselves for the same reason. There has been a glass floor for a reason … childbirth. Pregnancy doesn't pause for disasters either. Whether it be war or famine or natural disaster, women have endured or died in the middle of it because they were carrying a child. The glass floor was a natural occurance because while women have always carried the child and endured the hardships that go with it, it was a man's job to protect her.
I do not know how, in all honesty, can you Leandra talk about 1600's, when there is no reliable data. Turn your attention to today instead, when women's life expectancy in US is at least 6 years longer. That is a real indicator of where the attention must be, if you were interested in real problems.
At least 30,000 men commit suicide every year (more than 8 times more than women). The only real reason for it, is how the American society treats them, leaving them no hope for tomorrow. There is no denying that men's mortality is higher in all age groups, especially so among those in labor force, due to accidents and trauma. Yet, it is only "politically correct" to talk about women's needs, women's health, and women as self-avowed "victims" of this and that.
PC is a form of intellectual fascism that forbids reason, and permits only a point of view imposed by a special interest group. "Women first" has swung way too far. Those who deny it, may be up to a rude awakening.
A great many women recognise this and will often comment about not seeing women working on roofs, ditches, mines and building sites. If you think you can ingratiate yourself to women in general by pandering to feminist nonsense, you are mistaken. Women know they get the better part of the deal and will treat men who try to suck up to them with the contempt these wimps deserve.
Conclusion: men should stop give women any privilege since they just say they have none.
Since they want to break the glass ceiling to be "equals" some male, lets breaks their glass floor (our glass ceiling) and break any stereotype cast upon us.