#5
The U.S. Constitution assumes that it is protecting all individuals through its legislative, which historically has not been true. The legal system wants equality between both sexes, yet uses the difference between men and women to produce unequal results for the latter. The legal system doesn’t recognize these biological differences and how the law affects men and women in different ways due to their gender. In Christine Littleton’s article titled, “Reconstructing Sexual Equality”(1987), she believes that inequality between the sexes result from when society devalues women because they differ from the male norm. Littleton’s solution to this issue is that difference should neither be eradicated nor accommodated, but should be rendered "costless” …show more content…
However, under the law they were able to exercise their liberty under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling of Lawrence v Texas was a landmark case, which overturned the ruling of Bowers v Texas (1986), which dealt with criminalizing oral and anal sex between homosexuals. Lawrence v Texas made same-sex activity legal in every U.S. state and overturned sodomy laws in thirteen other …show more content…
Roberts discusses how black women have been punished by the legal system for the choices they make during their pregnancy, specifically drug use (crack cocaine). She states that “the prosecution of drug-addicted mothers cannot be explained as simply an issue of gender inequality...poor black women have been selected for punishment as a result of an inseparable combination of their gender, race, and economic status” (1424). This violation of a woman’s reproductive rights based on race and socioeconomic helps to perpetuate a hierarchy in our society based on other factors other than gender. Black women already have to face discrimination based on gender, but unlike white women are targeted also due to their race and/or status. According to Roberts, when white women and black women have similar rates of substance abuse, black women are ten more times likely than whites to be reported to public health authorities during pregnancy (1433). This statistic show that how much our legal system is defined by white privilege and socio-economic status, and how poor women of color aren’t as protected by our legal system when compared to white women of a higher status. Sherene Razack’s article “Looking White people in the Eye” discusses how culture affects gender in
The U.S. Constitution assumes that it is protecting all individuals through its legislative, which historically has not been true. The legal system wants equality between both sexes, yet uses the difference between men and women to produce unequal results for the latter. The legal system doesn’t recognize these biological differences and how the law affects men and women in different ways due to their gender. In Christine Littleton’s article titled, “Reconstructing Sexual Equality”(1987), she believes that inequality between the sexes result from when society devalues women because they differ from the male norm. Littleton’s solution to this issue is that difference should neither be eradicated nor accommodated, but should be rendered "costless” …show more content…
However, under the law they were able to exercise their liberty under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling of Lawrence v Texas was a landmark case, which overturned the ruling of Bowers v Texas (1986), which dealt with criminalizing oral and anal sex between homosexuals. Lawrence v Texas made same-sex activity legal in every U.S. state and overturned sodomy laws in thirteen other …show more content…
Roberts discusses how black women have been punished by the legal system for the choices they make during their pregnancy, specifically drug use (crack cocaine). She states that “the prosecution of drug-addicted mothers cannot be explained as simply an issue of gender inequality...poor black women have been selected for punishment as a result of an inseparable combination of their gender, race, and economic status” (1424). This violation of a woman’s reproductive rights based on race and socioeconomic helps to perpetuate a hierarchy in our society based on other factors other than gender. Black women already have to face discrimination based on gender, but unlike white women are targeted also due to their race and/or status. According to Roberts, when white women and black women have similar rates of substance abuse, black women are ten more times likely than whites to be reported to public health authorities during pregnancy (1433). This statistic show that how much our legal system is defined by white privilege and socio-economic status, and how poor women of color aren’t as protected by our legal system when compared to white women of a higher status. Sherene Razack’s article “Looking White people in the Eye” discusses how culture affects gender in