Justice Our Way

As a member of the literary community, I'm going to assume you've heard the phrase 'feminine rage' at least once. If not, let me break it down for you: Feminine rage (or female rage) is most commonly associated with the release of the unbridled fury that a woman/girl may have been carrying around for some time.

In media, it is often shown in violent outbursts that many have deemed 'masculine'. The implication, of course, being that violence is inherent to masculinity rather than humanity as a whole. Just as, over these many generations, domesticity has been the prevalent setting of the feminine. Regardless of the whole lecture I could go into on this (and, believe me, I did; I just deleted it), I want to narrow the scope to that of writing.

Feminine rage is what happens when a female raised to believe that gentleness, purity, patience, kindness, and empathy were all that she was allowed to feel finally experiences an unquenchable thirst for blood (aka justice). Just as most men experience toxic masculinity in the repression of all emotions except anger and jealousy, women are taught to experience all emotions except anger and resentment (aka toxic femininity).

Sidenote: this is what makes the Mean Girl character so prevalent and relatable. Because teenage girls aren't taught how to regulate anger and jealousy in a healthy way, and they take it out on each other rather than those who actually earn their ire. (The problem with some Mean Girls is that they don't leave that personality in high school where it belongs.)

Now, what does this have to do with the title: Justice Our Way? All the best things. For those of you who've played any generation of Sims, and used the option to remove the ladder from the swimming pool without getting your sim out beforehand, you'll understand exactly what this post is all about.

In the terms of World Building, we've already discussed the world as in the planet on which your characters reside, plus some geographical features. What comes next is the nation in which your main character inhabits. While there may well be a whole series of fun stuff to come in that category, today I want to focus entirely on the justice system.

What does it have to do with feminine rage? Well, if you are a female author, then this is the chance to punish transgressors exactly how you think they should be punished in real life. And that's what makes it so fun.

As someone who is prone to violence, has been bullied and has also been a bully, and attempted the mean girl thing myself, I feel comfortable in saying that I've mastered my anger over many years. That does not mean my rage has dimmed, only that I got better at expressing it. Books are one way in which I can vent. And vent I do.

(Even if you don't write and have no care to construct an entire world, it can sometimes be cathartic to write down what you think each punishment would be for the crimes you're most disgusted by.)

To give tips on how to construct and implement a justice system, let's begin with some questions:

How important is justice to your society?

Who creates the laws of the land? Who upholds the laws of the land?

What are the penalties for broken laws?

Who determines innocence or guilt?

How are innocence and guilt determined?

All of this, of course, can become more or less complex if the world you're building has magick, and will be determined by what kind of magick your characters are capable of.

Many of us know, of course, that the Judicial Branch is one of three main governing bodies of the United States of America. That is how highly the forebears of this nation placed the upholding of the laws and the rights to punish those who broke them. When we think of justice, we often think of a jury of twelve being presented opposing arguments and deciding who is lying.

In one of my currently-being-thrown-together worlds, the country of Adileh has placed the law in such high esteem that it is ruled by a Tribunal. The Tribunal are the nobility, for all intents and purposes. Their positions are hereditary and there are even strict laws that prohibit them from developing any personal connections between their Legendary bloodlines for fear of corruption or disruption of government. For the heirs to inherit their position on the tribunal, they must first go to university to study the law, then they start at the bottom in every field of the judicial system. This means they would spend a year or two as an officer before moving onto something akin to a detective. After that they would transfer into a clerk office where they learn about legal paperwork. Once they are deemed efficient, they would move up in the world of law studying criminal, corporate, and civil laws. At certain points they would need to play both prosecutor and defense roles before moving into lower court judging. The point is, from the moment they are born, heirs to the Tribunal live and breathe the law long before they're ever in a position to inherit their parent's place on the Tribunal. (This is a very pivotal/contentious point to the story in which this system is based.)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you could have a very anarchal kind of society where members do as they will, and thus the punishments are also up to the victims of any crimes.

Another thing to consider is the magick system, if you have one. If it's a society of those that can control elements, then knowing how to punish a budding young arsonist would come in handy. But if characters have more mental abilities and can read each other's minds, then would you even need a jury to determine who the guilty party is? What are the ethics behind allowing one's mind to be read? And how would you incapacitate someone who is able to manipulate everyone around them?

To be honest, that's also something to consider heavily if you are writing a paranormal or urban fantasy book. What do our laws look like matched up against incredibly powerful magickal beings? (A really good series that explores this is the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews.)

Overall, like most things about writing fantasy, the best part is that you can do whatever you want. Ask yourself all of the difficult questions. Then make up all the answers.