The Enchantment of the Female Criminal

“You are vain and wicked- as a genius should be.” ― Günter Grass, The Tin Drum

Casey Anthony, Anna Sorokin, Elizabeth Holmes, Amber Heard. All constantly platformed in the news, all accused (some convicted) of hideous crimes and fraud. An interesting thing happens when women are accused of foul behavior, they suddenly become media darlings. It’s as if the world suddenly becomes fascinated that a female has pulled off some grand scheme. Society seems to be consistently shocked that women are capable of appalling behavior, and instead of treating a crime as a crime they revel in what must be calculating genius at work. Never mind that history shows us numerous women who have murdered husbands and children. Every new case is looked at with shock and awe, sprinkled with a dash of glitter and mysterious intrigue.

Casey Anthony has a new documentary series releasing which stars herself. Anna Sorokin is under house arrest, after being jailed for numerous frauds and thievery, and gets puff pieces complete with photoshoots wondering what’s next on her magical con-artist journey. Elizabeth Homes defrauded people of billions and put lives in danger with her fake blood testing device, how dare she be convicted and sent to jail. “She’s a woman, a mother, oh please be lenient with her.” Guffaw. Amber Heard, I am so tired of typing this name, found liable for defamation with malice and owing Johnny Depp $10 million plus, continues her PR parade as a darling of domestic abuse. Sickening. All of it is sickening.

The double standards are glaringly obvious. Let just a hint, a whiff, a whisper of something nefarious be said about a man and its lights out, game over, life over. No due process, no championing of human rights, no waiting for facts and evidence. Just over and out. Even if one should go to court and prevail, there is no winning. The damage is permanently done.

The female villain has always been portrayed as an enchanting, calculated siren. One need only look at a number of fairy tales to see wicked witches whose beauty compels spell binding intoxication and infatuation. I hate to say it, but the world injects a form of sex appeal into female evil-doers that give them fame and stardom for their deeds. It becomes alluring and mystical instead of treating what they’ve done as it should be treated - with jail time and silence. NO ONE who perpetrates crimes should be championed as anything other than a criminal to be shunned. Yet we get an explosion of true crime series and people sending love letters to serial killers behind bars (male and female).

The Jeffrey Dahmer Netflix series set records for the streaming service. What does it say about society that we salivate over horrid, gory, stories of human suffering? Humanity at large has a grotesque obsession with murder and chaos, even more so when it becomes legendary mystery along the lines of Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden. Documentaries, who done its, it’s like a macabre game of clue.

When you see people like Heard and Holmes being catapulted to stardom for their deeds and wonder why the press insists on lying to your face about what the facts are, look no further than basic human mature. It is my personal belief that most people are good, because most people are good they are enchanted by those who commit large scale crimes. It’s not something they are capable of doing, there’s a sexy undertone to a conniving female pulling off a global heist. It’s enthrallment with the idea of toying with authorities, lies, stealing, and worse.

Sex sells, as they say, and when you combine sex with scandal there’s a guaranteed return on investment. It’s always been and always will be about the money. The female equivalent of a James Bond villain in real life is a money printing machine.

As I was writing this Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to just over 11 years in jail. A sentence well deserved, imo, but look no further than twitter to find people calling her “a poor girl who is a mother”, as if stealing billions and endangering lives with fake medical equipment is nothing more than a parking ticket.

Some factions of society are completely warped. In the last few days I’ve seen everything from “no more jury trials” to “it doesn’t matter if Amber Heard was lying about anything”, and they’ve got the media on their side with these horrendous takes. They don’t want due process available to men, they only want to dole out instant punishments and wreak misery upon all who disagree with them. It’s a rather dystopian development to be frank. All I hear is the Red Queen yelling, “off with their heads!”

I can’t pretend to know where all this ends and common sense returns, or if it ever will. I just hope there are always level headed folks around willing to stand up for what’s right in any circumstance. Equality doesn’t mean superiority but that seems to be the way quite a few want things to go. Yes, women have been pushed down in history but two wrongs do not make a right, and all that’s being made right now is a huge mess.