Gaul Atreides (@gaulatreides)

The mass psychology underpinning the reactions to the Clancy filicides is a sociobiological window into how we perceive femaleness and motherhood. We don't expect women to be capable of the level of violence Clancy visited upon her three children, and we certainly recoil at the idea that a mother would do such a vile act against her own children. The bond of motherhood is so precious and instinctually cherished in both men and women that it can hardly be comprehended when that bond is viciously torn apart. Men react to the crime with calls for swift and merciless justice, manifesting a desire to quickly cleanse their society of the unnatural evil. Women react to the crime with calls for nuance and mercy and blame-shifting, placating their incredulity in a different form by leaning on conspiracy and man-hatred as safe havens to rationalize Lindsay Clancy's rejection of the natural order.