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PresentScientist4278 t1_j67139j wrote

Reply to comment by EducationalElevator in 8-month-old baby injured in Duxbury family tragedy dies, DA says by Jezebels_lipstick

The sudden sympathy for a killer of children—her own children—is something that struck me too. It says a lot about society’s views towards race, class, and gender. If she was anything but a white woman from Deluxebury, people would be treating this a lot differently. Anyone who kills children is clearly mentally sick, but when it’s anyone else we don’t parse out diagnoses, we just call it f’ed in the head and they’re a monster undeserving of any modicum of compassion.

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joearchang t1_j679hn1 wrote

I think we all try to make sense of this horrific thing. Intelligent people want to know what would drive someone to do the unimaginable. It’s mental health issues. So it becomes human to everyone. The same mental health issues could be attributed to most violent behaviors. We draw a line in our mind between something being justified and unjustified. The line gets blurred when the evil doer is a cute girl that doesn’t look like she would hurt a fly. Sad

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Full_Alarm1 t1_j6cx1yz wrote

Respectfully, there are very few women who kill their children who are in active treatment for post partum mental health issues. I would challeneg you to find another story like this. That’s a big part of the sympathy- that we as a society dont give enough attention to pp mh, and that even when a woman did give it attention, this happened.

You can blame all the other factors class/race/gender- they are clearly relevant. The idea of someone being aware of, and taking advantage of, help in this situation, and then tragically having the worst outcome is part of what makes so many people have sympathy. Among the other reasons you’ve mentioned

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LadyGreyIcedTea t1_j6g4sb2 wrote

To be fair, who has an easier time accessing mental health treatment? An affluent woman who in all likelihood has private health insurance and a husband who is able to work from home while she seeks treatment or a woman of lower socioeconomic means who is on MassHealth and who doesn't have family support?

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EducationalElevator t1_j6baru0 wrote

Agree with you 100% and I'm getting down voted to oblivion for suggesting race or class has anything to do with the odd reaction to this tragedy from the Instagram Mamas

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