Search Results: fighting

Once upon a time, two men would duel each other to decide who was innocent and who was guilty. The winner was obviously innocent. Similarly women were expected to swim to safety to prove their innocence. The reason given is that God would not allowed an innocent person to be harmed... but I think the reason is a little more about strength. Fighting - for women, swimming - or any show of strength in the untamed wilderness of pagan Europe would mean you were theoretically too valuable to kill. Even if you were guilty of the crime, in the grand scheme of things, "God" found you to be innocent. I believe the racism and sexism - made evident by statistics - of the US justice system is from the same sentiment. Except instead of trial by combat, the "God" inside the judges is telling them that women are valuable, and that anyone too different than them is a freak of nature and probably not valuable. This sentiment comes from when human societies were isolated and homogeneous. As is said: all vices were once virtues.