Family, Gender, and Violence—Images from Life, Literature, and the Courts

This chapter will focus on ways in which imbalances of powerPower appear in surprising spaces where it works to reinforce the status quo. Do courtsCourts look at these spaces? If they do not, this may not even be a deliberate act of omission on their part; this can be attributed simply to the normalization of imbalance in society as the normNorms. We do not question normsNorms. Recently, in an auditorium stuffed to full capacity with college students, I asked them to mentally design their homesHome, navigate the spaces, and tell me what they see. Their mental plan did not include the kitchen. After I pointed this out, they added the kitchen. I then asked them who they see in the kitchen and the answer was the mother. This is the normNorms. The womanWomen always occupies the invisible spaces. Through this chapter, I share my encounters with the normative as it applies to familyFamily, marriageMarriage, and genderGender. These normsNorms lie latent, consistent, and unquestioned. I draw from my life as a lawyer and, later, as a judge to reflect on the normative through the lens of life and literatureLiterature, as I weave images of how this status quo can either be reinforced or it can be questioned and changed.