Supreme Court to strike down Roe v. Wade in draft ruling leaked to Politico

j9c May 6, 2022, 10:04pm 340

A closer look at the basis for Alito’s opinion, partially sampled here (more at Lit Lady’s Twitter links):

Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

Justice Alito's invocation of Sir Matthew Hale in his leaked majority opinion is so, so much more fucked up than people realize. I'm a professor with a PhD, and my area of expertise happens to be women and gender in the early modern era (1500-1700). Here is what you need to know. https://t.co/MfMSi1g4D2

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 47K 22K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Sir Matthew Hale was a huge advocate for marital rape. Like many early modern men, he believed that women's bodies belonged to men, first their father when they were born and then their husband when they were married. WOMEN WERE NOT SEEN AS AUTONOMOUS BEINGS.

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 11K 2K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Early modern law was based on a combination of roman law, common law, and biblical law. There wasn't a separation of church and state. The 1632 manual The Lawes Resolutions of Women's Rights, for instance, cited the Bible as the basis of a lot of laws pertaining to women.

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 7.8K 970

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Hale, just like a lot of Christian extremists today, believed that women were made from Adam's rib. God did not make her as an autonomous being with rights. She was a physical extension of his body, made to be his "helpmeet," namely to exist to help him to whatever he wants.

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 8K 1.1K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

The writings of the apostle Paul were also used as a basis of law during Hale's life. The man was "the head of the woman" and it was inarguable to suggest otherwise. Many Christian sects still quote this passage as a basis for patriarchal rule in the home and in the church.

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 7.2K 890

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Hale therefore wrote in his posthumously published book Historia Placitorum Coronæ (1713) that marital rape was totally legal. In fact, because a man owned a woman's body as it was an extension of his own to do with whatever he willed, he was incapable of marital rape.

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 7K 1K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

The logic was that you can't rape something that isn't considered an independent human being. Your wife's body is yours and you can't rape yourself. This is the logic Alito is upholding when he invokes Hale. But it gets worse.

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 9.3K 1.9K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Let's say a woman vocalized her opinion and it ran contrary to her husband's. She didn't want sex. Hale believed that this put her in violation of her marital vows. She was literally breaking the law. Women who denied men sex needed to be punished.

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 7.3K 990

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

There was a whole set of laws at the time specifically on the punishment of women who spoke up against the men in their lives. They didn't have the legal authority to say no to sex because they were not legally independent human beings.

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 6.8K 870

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Beating your wife was not only permissible by law but also encouraged as a corrective tool. Hale, like many other legal writers of his day, subscribed to the "rule of thumb" - namely, you could beat your wife with an object was not thicker than a man's thumb.

1:11 PM - 5 May 2022 7.2K 1.2K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Men were encouraged in law manuals, however, to beat their wives in a reflective manner, understanding that it was necessary for the salvation of their wife's soul and done out of love rather than anger. It was advised to never beat a woman in rage.

2:01 PM - 5 May 2022 6.3K 790

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Court records, however, were filled with incidents of extreme physical violence against women by their husbands so this advice was rarely followed. Women who were beaten nearly to death rarely saw justice. The courts almost always sided with the husband. He was doing his job.

2:01 PM - 5 May 2022 6.5K 870

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Keep in mind that Hale and others also viewed a father's role in a similar way. The daughter had no bodily autonomy, & it was a father's duty to "correct" his children as long as he did so within the law. Daughters were groomed from an early age to be obedient to future husbands.

2:01 PM - 5 May 2022 6.2K 800

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

It should be no surprise that Hale was responsible for the trial and execution of women for witchcraft and that his legal opinion would be used as a base for the execution of women and children by the state both in England and the Americas.

2:01 PM - 5 May 2022 7K 1.1K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

The big witch trial Hale was known for was the 1662 trial of Rose Cullender and Amy Duny. It followed many of the trial conventions of the day with bonkers stories of toads, vomiting pins, etc. Both women were widows and found guilty. reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digi…

2:01 PM - 5 May 2022 6.2K 830

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Alito knows that by kicking reproductive control back to the states that he is putting an incredible amount of power in the hands of the men who control these communities. He knows that white men are disproportionately in charge of these places.

2:30 PM - 5 May 2022 7.2K 1.2K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Alito knows how much power and influence local churches have on local leadership. He knows most of these institutions are controlled by men. He is counting on it. He knows the biggest threat to women are the men in their homes and communities.

2:30 PM - 5 May 2022 6.8K 1.1K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

Justice Alito and men like him do not see women as independent human beings with their own human rights. They see us as incapable of making our own decisions. They consider men to be divinely appointed to rule over women. This is not an exaggeration.

2:30 PM - 5 May 2022 8.1K 1.8K

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Dr. Literature_Lady 💌📚📜🎙

@Literature_Lady

If they think of white Christian women this way, imagine what they think about women of color, women of non-Christian groups, or trans women and men. The utter disdain towards them is deep, disturbing, incomprehensible, and violent.

2:30 PM - 5 May 2022 7.7K 1.2K

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