(no subject)

[serene]

Can't get Andrea Yates out of my head. Before today, I didn't know who she was.

If you know who she is, does she haunt you?

If you don't know who she is, don't google her unless you're up for a serious downer with a dose of feminist rage.

Comments

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

What am I missing?

I don't get where feminism comes into play here.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Oh, she haunts me. Her name conjured up the whole story in an instant.

Do you want to reply to the previous commenter, or would you like someone else to do it for you?

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Just one sentence among many: "In March of 2000, Andrea, on Rusty's urging, became pregnant and stopped taking the Haldol." This is *after* they were warned that more kids would return her to psychosis, and after the Haldol had given her an amazing turnaround in her condition.

[sagittaria.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know the name. I don't know how you missed hearing about that when it all happened, and of course there's been another blip recently because her ex-husband just remarried. She doesn't haunt me, but she certainly inspired some deep thinking a few years ago. The one good thing to come out of it is an increased awareness of postpartum depression and when help may be needed.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Someone on my friendslist is thinking about her today, and it made me want to see who she was.

And I replied, but I would be really grateful to hear your take. I do see other comments from you in my inbox, though, so I'll go read them now.

*hugs and love*

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

See, I just see that as one crazy person listening to two other crazy people.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

There's probably a reason you see it that way and I see it the way I do. Wonder what that could be?

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

have i mentioned this week that i adore you?

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Yay!

Send me email if you wanna hear something weird about my week that involves you and is a little weird-outy.

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

Yes. I can't get her off my mind today.

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

Yes. I can't get her off my mind today. It makes me really sad, though I think the woman who threw her babies into the bay makes me sadder for some reason.

[ailbhe]

"Rusty decided" that they were going to live on a *bus* with *how* many children?

"Rusty urged" her to stop taking her meds and get pregnant again?

Grrr.

[snippy]

She doesn't haunt me, largely because I see her as only one example of a longterm widespread problem.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

She haunts me for a number of reasons. Her madness, her despair, the guilt she'll bear for the rest of her life.

It's the religious angle that gets me. She was trying to be -- and Rusty was urging her to be -- the perfect fundamentalist Christian wife and mother. This ideal is perky and energetic, and she bears a quiverful of children, homeschools them all, keeps her house perfectly (maybe with the help of the older girls), sews smashing designer clothes for herself and adorable matching outfits for the wee ones, raises and preserves all their own food, runs a women's Bible study group (not for men, since it's not proper for women to teach their betters), all while being *religiously* submissive to her husband because Jesus wants it that way. All without the aid of methamphetamines or household help. Does she have a job? "Oh no. I would never *work*."

It's not that nobody can do it. Especially if she wants to do it, doesn't have an outside job, does have a lot of physical energy, loves kids, has no mental illnesses, has an excellent support system, and is talented at housework, gardening, and needlework. I've known women who did it and loved it.

But I've also known women who were broken by it, and kids who suffered from it, and women who, like me, wanted something else and still ache sometimes because I can never ever force myself into that mold. And Andrea Yates tried, and her children died because fundamentalists think there's only one way for a woman to live.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Whenever women engage in self-destructive behavior because of the social expectations that surround "good wife and mother," feminism comes into play.

In Andrea Yates' case, her behavior was not only self destructive. Enough said?

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know who she is. (http://madameverdi.blogspot.com/2006/06/andrea-yates-and-me.html)

I haven't googled her, and I guess the retrial verdict must have come back guilty. Fuckers.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Not guilty, actually.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Now I have googled her, and see that she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. American justice prevailed.

She still will spend probably the rest of her life in a secure facility -- or at least a large chunk of it -- but it will be a facility where she can get help.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

He was *not* crazy, at least not by any recognized psychiatric measure. She *was*. People in such a relationship have a duty of care to those with mental illness to help support them so that they can get better, not to increase the likelihood that they will have a psychotic break. His behavior in this instance is simply reprehensible.

Personally, I think urging someone who is prone to psychosis to go off her meds should be criminal.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I think you have some good points, but I also think that she would probably have had some problems even with fewer children. From what I've read, she had suicide attempts after at least one other child, so it wasn't just the number of kids that broke her. It was biochemical and hormonal -- the difference was that her husband was so intent on "being fruitful and multiplying" he overlooked his wife's psychiatric problems and the result was tragedy.

[leback.livejournal.com]

Gosh, what a thing to come across all at once when you're not already familiar with the story. :-( I think I was a little too young (by which I really mean too inexperienced) when it first hit the news to really grasp all the nuances of what it was about, so it's one of those things that is not so much haunting for me, as just part of the background landscape of the world I live in.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Holy crap...

*HE* took her off her meds?

No wonder he was so forgiving.

Someone explain to me why *she* is the only one facing charges.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

today is a fine day for blaming christian idiocy.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

When this first happened, and I heard that he'd urged her off her meds and gotten her pregnant again, I wondered why the bastard wasn't being tried too.

To answer your question, Serene, yeah, this haunts me. And the anger I feel towards Rusty Yates burns unabated.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

He wasn't tried, in all probability, because it was in Texas. I wonder what would happen if this case had happened in California: I would bet good money he would have been charged with child endangerment for leaving the children in the care of a woman known to be psychotic. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.