Draft Three
Title: To Love, Honour and Obey
Validity: Women's rights neither terribly low nor wonderfully high;
Description: After @@RANDOMNAMEFEMALE@@ was arrested for the attempted murder of her partner of twenty-five years, the prosecutor had a slam-dunk. Responding to a call, the police found @@RANDOMFIRSTNAMEMALE@@ @@RANDOMSURNAME_1@@, blood-spattered and in hiding, as @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME_1@@ held the knife and flatly said "I missed". She was convicted after three minutes of deliberation. Now, her adult son has come to appeal to you directly.
Option: "My mother has not known a day of freedom since she met that man," cries @@RANDOMFIRSTNAMEMALE@@, pointing to his father, whose upper body is heavily bandaged and arms are in slings. "She was a victim of coercive control. He told her what to what to wear, what to buy, who she could talk to, when she could sleep. Every day, he told her she was worthless. She has more dignity in prison! When she threatened to leave him, he told us kids: 'Your mother is leaving us. You'll never see her again'. She should have gone but he'd broken her. You need to ensure this kind of psychological and verbal abuse and manipulation is prosecuted and victims helped. My mother was a desperate captive. Monsters like him belong in jail, not her."
Effect: asking your partner to cut back on their spending leads to a hefty prison sentence
Option Validity: Must have prisons
Option: "My mother has not known a day of freedom since she met that man," cries @@RANDOMFIRSTNAMEMALE@@, pointing to his father, whose upper body is heavily bandaged and arms are in slings. "She was a victim of coercive control. He told her what to what to wear, what to buy, who she could talk to, when she could sleep. Every day, he told her she was worthless. She has more dignity at the rehabilitation centre! When she threatened to leave him, he told us kids: 'Your mother is leaving us. You'll never see her again'. She should have gone but he'd broken her. You need to ensure this kind of psychological and verbal abuse and manipulation is prosecuted and victims helped. My mother was a desperate captive. Monsters like him should be punished, not her."
Effect: asking your partner to cut back on their spending leads to a hefty punishment
Option Validity: No prisons
Option: "Don't blame the boy," smiles @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME_2@@, blinking meekly up at you. "He has an infant's natural loyalty to his mother. Sadly, his fragile mind has blocked out what his mother really said, before I told the children she was leaving. It is easier to imagine some bad behaviour on my part than to accept he was unwanted by his mama. Sadly, @@LEADER@@, my partner also seriously believes I have somehow mistreated her. She's so naïve; she cannot realise I've only ever sought to protect her. This is why you must give no quarter to my son's infantile suggestion. Can you imagine the harm if someone as mentally weak as @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME_1@@ -- even outright liars -- convinced anyone that their unsound memory is true? People like me could lose everything."
Effect: partners seem to imagine walking into doors more often
Option: "Isn't it sad that we need to tell people to not monitor the time their partners spend talking to other people? Shouldn't a principle of 'Don't Be a Weirdo' just about cover it?" says Minister of Just Quit It Already @@RANDOMNAME@@, as @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME_2@@ jumps up with his fist pointing accusingly, before resuming his head-bowed seated position. "I mean, it's one thing to shut the gate after the horse has got a shiv and shanked the... erm, bolt, but a pound of prevention is worth an ounce of cure... or, you know what I mean. So, sure, domestic violence laws should cover these behaviours, but we also need to teach children how to avoid future controlling relationships."
Effect: five years olds analyse the onset of Stockholm Syndrome in 'Beauty and the Beast'
Opinions welcome.