Dear readers, today I have lost yet another piece of already dwindling faith in humanity. You see, I read today that a despicable, heinous, atrocity of a woman got life in prison WITH chance of parole for her actions.
The woman in question? Catherine Kieu.
The crime? Drugging her husband in July of 2011, tying him to their bed, cutting off his penis and fucking throwing it in the garbage disposal.
His “crime”? Wanting to get a divorce.
Yes, you read that correctly. He was not an abusive wife beater, he didn’t cheat on her with multiple STD infected lovers, he didn’t maritally rape her…he deemed her an unfit wife and made the mistake of telling her he was going to pursue a divorce. Why, in her mind, this meant he “deserved” to lose his penis is anyone’s guess.
The worst part of this (beside the obvious pain and suffering that Glen, the ex-husband goes through on a daily basis) is that this disgusting woman is eligible for parole in seven years. Seven years of good behavior, and this mutilator could be back out on our streets. Yet Glen will have to live the remainder of his life without his sex organ…how is this justice?
Answer: It is not.
This may be an extreme example of domestic abuse, but it is STILL domestic abuse. This is an overly revolting case, and frankly it makes me sick to write about. But what is even worse is the responses to this crime. I will not link to any of them, I don’t want to sully my blog with such filth, even indirectly. But go onto any news source reporting on this topic and read some of the comments, or better (worse) yet check out what members of CBS’s “The Talk” had to say about it in July 2011. To save you from doing so, I will let you know that you will find laughter and comments on how “he must have deserved it”, “good for her”, “you go girl” and “men rape everyday…it’s time we did something back”.
This is solid proof, in my opinion, that our society is broken. Where is our sympathy for victims of mutilation? Why are people finding humor in such a disgusting sex crime? How has our species fallen so low as to lose our sense of righteousness and empathy?
I almost wish I knew the answers. Almost.
Discussion is, as always, welcome. But please remember to keep it polite and on topic, especially for this particular subject. Comments endorsing either misandry or misogyny will not be allowed through, nor will examples of victim shaming.
Tarnished Sophia 
Sad to say nothing ceases to amaze me in this day and age. Not too long ago I was innocently looking up a musician I really enjoyed to see if he put out any new music lately and saw that a year ago he had so much drama with his ex-wife trying to put him in jail, hiring another woman to falsely accuse him of rape (I know it’s not true because I have friends who are good friends with him and that is not his character, plus he’s now happily married to a very smart women who would not put up with any such crap). Also know another guy something worse happened (but I promised I’d never talk about it) — not as bad as the penis thing, but very devastating. People just slay me with the extremes they go to in order to hurt someone. Hell, my heart’s been broken once or twice — I moved on and did a million times better! No reason for sick revenge! This is just awful. That poor, poor, guy!
It’s stories like these that make me question what these people have in terms of their mental and spiritual well-being. And I’m not just speaking about the woman who has committed the crime but all of the people that have laughed off the crime and spoken about the victim as a joke. Yes, I understand that the woman was upset that her husband wanted a divorce but that doesn’t ever give her or anyone else the right to physically harm another human being. What was going through her head during that time? Yet the question that goes through my head first is how is anyone involved in this tragedy supposed to go on with life, forgiving others for what they’ve done after that? Certainly she didn’t have much of a good spiritual well-being or she would have had faith that God would take care of her and her spouse in whatever way he deemed fit. So that she wouldn’t have felt the need to take the issue into her own hands. If she had, had a better spiritual well-being would her spouse have been spared this horrible tragedy?
It’s a similar response when little boys are raped by women… just a few days ago I read a story and in the comments someone was trying to insist that the 11 year old consented and the woman didn’t do anything wrong.
If there is one thing I have learned in the last several months of awakening to what this world is truly like, it’s that nothing is ever as it seems. What we are shown through mass media is rarely the full or accurate story. There are reports of the husband sexually abusing his wife ( though as an abuse survivor, if she had not received treatment or help in any way…she may have a very different perspective on what quantifies abusive sexual behaviour.) There are also reports that the husband was seeing his ex girlfriend which is why he wanted the divorce. Neither of those things would justify what she did to him, and any civilized and rational person would agree that it was excessive and grotesque. What bothers me more than the event itself is humanity’s response to events such as these. THAT is where I lose faith in society. THAT is where I think we are all going way off track. He didn’t ‘deserve’ it because he is a man. There is no ‘good for her’ pat on the back warranted. Mob mentality reigns supreme. 😦
Welcome to Misandry.
It’s roots are derived from the biological aspect that men on average are physically stronger and can create more damage + the inherent protection mechanism men (and women) have towards saving women because reproductively women are valuable (eggs) men are not (sperm). Chivalry only enhanced this notion of male disposability.
This video was enlightening too.
Actually this is an improvement since she is actually going to go to jail for at least seven years. Mary Winkler murdered her husband by shooting him in the back while he was asleep and was let off by the jury and today she has custody of their children.
I don’t think it has as much to do with spiritual well-being as mental well-being. After all, the vast majority of atheists (like any other group) would never resort to this type of violence, and they aren’t spiritual at all.
But yes, something was clearly off in her mind. No sense of morality, perhaps?
Ugh, that’s just horrible.
Age of consent is 18, regardless of sex/gender. If the person you are trying to be intimate with is NOT 18 and you aren’t wed…it’s statutory rape and endangering a minor. I don’t care who you are. It’s wrong.
If only more people thought this way, Maryanne. If only…
I hope both guys in your comment are doing okay now?
I have heard the rumor about him having a girlfriend on the side…haven’t read anywhere about him being accused of abuse. (Though numerous sources have said she was sexually abused when she was young.) If you have more information, I’d love to see it.
Totally agree with the “mob mentality” aspect of it. The sheeple seem to enjoy going along with the herd’s ideas…
Yeah, that’s the same video I used in my “Deserving of Protection” post. Don’t care for chivalry at all myself. It’s an old-fashioned notion that only serves to perpetuate inequality between the sexes.
Ew, really? I have not heard of this case. I’ll have to look more into it.
In any case, seven years is hardly enough.
Damn, ouch, horrible 😦 I’m pretty outspoken when it comes to any form of genital mutilation, including male circumcision.
An ex-partner of mine used to threaten me with cutting my dick off for looking at other women. She always said she was joking but there’s no need to say it at all, it made me feel really uncomfortable.
I’m sure no woman would like it if I joked about cutting their breasts or clitoris off! Sheesh!
There’s no doubt that abuse goes both ways and that neither is acceptable. Good on you for highlighting that isn’t not only women who are the victims of domestic and sexual abuse 🙂
Thanks for sharing Sophia!
Rohan.
Yes, both are 🙂
You on right now>?
Sounds like he wanted to divorce her because she was abusive. A lot of women have been in this situation, too. And likely other men that I’m not aware of. I tell my students that if they want to leave an abusive partner, don’t tell them. That is the most dangerous time. Contact an abuse hotline and make plans, and then leave without telling your partner.
I feel that the courts are not harsh enough in many instances of this sort that I’ve read about. We do need better justice.
Good. I’m glad.
I have been busy the past few days, but I have off today (July 4th). Remember you can always contact me personally at tarnishedsophia@hotmail.com.
I agree. This woman was most likely abusive, or at least unstable, prior to this crime. Even if she was just hard to live with…well, everyone sees what type of person she REALLY is now.
Courts need to be more harsh when it comes to domestic violence in general, and more supportive to male victims specifically.
I am also against genital mutilation of girls and boys. If I were to ever have kids, I’d not circumcise my son anymore than I would my daughter. But more on that in a future post…
Begging your pardon, but your ex sounds pretty disturbed if she thought that was something to joke about. It would be like my lover joking about cutting my clit…gross and hateful at the same time.
Sadly, I’ve been to comedy shows were FGM has been joked about. I think it speaks to people’s sense of taste that the guy was boo’d off stage, but I can’t help but wonder if they’d have the same reaction to MGM.
Yeah, I don’t believe there’s nearly enough info out there about male victims of DV, whereas everyone knows about female victims. I’ll be doing more posts in the future to level the field of knowledge.
‘Comments endorsing either misandry or misogyny will not be allowed’
Aww….come on Sophia!