Bbrickell (@Bbrickell)

Jonathan M La Rue 3 days ago · If Lindsay Clancy is found not guilty because hormones made her emotionally unstable, women need to be very careful about celebrating that verdict. The law runs on precedent, and that kind of precedent could be used against women for years. Imagine every job interview starting with this question: “Are you currently hormonal?” “Well, I’m a woman.” “Thank you for your time, but we’ve decided to go in another direction.” If hormones can legally make a woman incapable of controlling her actions, then how can anyone argue that women should carry weapons or serve as police officers? Why would anyone hand someone a loaded gun when their future defense could be, “My hormones took over”? The same argument could be used to keep women out of every high stress position. No air traffic controllers. No surgeons. No access to nuclear launch codes. One bad hot flash and suddenly Canada is glowing. Women could not be judges either. How can you determine whether someone else is mentally and emotionally responsible when your own argument is that female hormones can take complete control and cause someone to kill three people? The same goes for female politicians. You cannot claim that your endocrine system can override your judgment and then demand to be trusted with running the country. Custody hearings could change overnight, too. A judge could say, “Normally, the children would remain with their mother. However, based on the Lindsay Clancy precedent, she may only be one hormonal episode away from becoming the subject of a Netflix documentary. The children will go with their father.” Dad may not know their shoe sizes, their pediatrician’s name, or which child is allergic to peanuts, but testosterone has never successfully been used as an insanity defense. Women spent more than a century fighting the belief that they are hysterical, irrational, and controlled by their biology. Then one defense attorney walks into a courtroom and essentially says, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you considered the uterus?” You cannot demand equal authority while asking for reduced accountability. Equal rights also mean equal responsibility when something goes terribly wrong. Otherwise, that glass ceiling could quickly become a padded one.