Today I was reading the courier mail and found three articles that clearly illustrate the potential for women to engage in violent behavior. I have reprinted these articles below. I would like to point out that this is not an attack on women rather it is an attempt to highlight a discrepancy in the way we view the world, that women are never violent. However, I will quote the much use feminist catch cry yet again and say yes indeed "women can do anything."
Breaking the Lies Part 4 - The Gender "Myth Busters".
A HIGH school student carried out a frightening and unprovoked attack on a defenceless 57-year-old woman before turning on a good Samaritan, a court has been told.
Shannon Maree O'Reilly, 17, of Coorparoo, appeared at the Brisbane Magistrates Court today charged with two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, and one count each of grievous bodily harm and wilful damage.
It is alleged the Coorparoo Secondary College student attacked the stranger on a Coorparoo street yesterday morning before turning on a 34-year-old man who came to the woman's aid.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Kerrilee Larasey told the court it was a "totally unprovoked, frightening assault" on a frail woman who weighed just 35kg.
Court documents reveal the victim, who received a deep laceration to her skull, also suffers from Parkinson's disease.
The court was told O'Reilly suffered from medical conditions including psychosis and depression and had acted out of character.
But a bail application was denied and she was remanded in custody.
She is due to reappear in the same court on October 2.
A YOUNG real estate professional has been jailed over a dancefloor confrontation with another woman in which she smashed a drinking glass in her face.
In a sign of courts' toughening stance against such offences, Brisbane District Court judge Garry Forno ordered that 22-year-old Sheri Avril Hayes spend the next three months behind bars as punishment for her violent outburst in February last year on the dance floor at Friday's nightclub in inner-city Brisbane.
Hayes, a senior property manager at ReMax, cried throughout yesterday's sentencing hearing and continued to sob as she was led away to the courtroom cells.
The court was told the 19-year-old victim was a stranger but brushed past an intoxicated Hayes as she and her friends moved to the club's dance floor.
The pair did not initially exchange words, but there was some jostling, and Hayes then bumped into the other woman a couple of times before asking her if she was looking for a fight. The court was told two of the victim's friends confronted Hayes and told her they did not want a fight.
Hayes then struck the victim with her beer glass.
She was treated in hospital for cuts on her nose and forehead and has since been referred to a plastic surgeon for advice about scarring. Police were tipped off about Hayes's involvement in the incident a few days later.
She pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of wounding. The court was told Hayes was deeply ashamed of her behaviour and that her career was now under threat.
Judge Forno told her he accepted the violent incident was out of character, but said a deterrent sentence had to be imposed.
"I'm satisfied, and it does me no pleasure in doing or saying this, that some short period of custody is necessarily indicated," he said.
Judge Forno imposed an 18-month jail term, but ordered Hayes be released on parole in December.
A DRUNKEN woman dangled her five-year-old daughter from a bridge and then threatened to have shocked witnesses killed by bikies, police have alleged.
The girl allegedly screamed "Don't drop me, Mummy" as her mother Rebecca May Gleeson held her above the Coomera River.
A shaven-headed and tattooed Gleeson, 27, has faced Southport Magistrate's Court charged with endangering the welfare of her child.
Police from the Child Protection Unit said they were called to the area about 11.30pm last Friday following reports of a woman attempting to throw her daughter off the bridge.
In a court brief, police said witnesses reported hearing a car revving loudly in the car park with smoke coming from the vehicle.
Witnesses said they saw a woman sitting passed out in the driver's seat with a young girl next to her, dressed only in pyjama pants.
The girl was allegedly trying to escape from the smoke-filled car when a witness grabbed the car keys.
"Get the f––– away from my child," Gleeson allegedly yelled before scooping up her daughter and running across the bridge.
"If I drop the kid, it's all your fault. Don't call the police."
Gleeson allegedly lifted her daughter over the bridge railing, telling witnesses: "You're all f–––ing dead, you're all going to die. I know everyone in the Rebels (bikie gang) and I'm going to have you guys killed."
As witnesses argued with Gleeson, she allegedly yelled: "I'm going to drop her."
She was arrested by police who say she was "extremely aggressive" and threatened to burn down the police station.
Opposing bail, prosecutor Sergeant Warren Murdock said there were concerns for Gleeson's mental health.
However, a mental health court liaison officer said Gleeson's behaviour was not driven by mental illness but by alcohol.
Duty solicitor Mark Schofield said Gleeson had been on anti-depressants but had not taken her medication for 10 days.
Mr Schofield said Gleeson's daughter was now in the care of her grandparents and his client was willing to have no contact with the girl until the case was finalised.
But Magistrate John Costanzo said Gleeson posed a risk to her daughter, herself and the community until her mental state was stabilised, and denied her bail. The case was adjourned for a committal hearing on November 26.
Alcohol link to rise in attacks by girls
BINGE drinking has been blamed for a surge in the number of women arrested for violence.
The number of women identified by police as being involved in assault incidents grew from 13,373 in 2002-03 to 14,806 in 2006-07, figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research show.
There was a 2.3 per cent growth in the 10 to 17 age bracket, and of 2.6 per cent among women aged over 18.
The overall assault rate and assaults by men have remained steady.
The emergency director of St Vincent's Hospital, Gordian Fulde, has no doubt a rise in binge drinking is behind the growing number of females committing assault.
He described the massive increase in the representation of drunk young women to his department over the past few years as "scary".
"Have I seen an upward trend in the number of women involved in assaults? Yes: a) in number, b) in severity.
"Women tolerate alcohol less. The disinhibition will then mean it disinhibits their control. They'll start swearing, act aggressively and they'll fight. And they'll cause fights," Dr Fulde said.
The statistics bureau chief, Don Weatherburn, said nationwide data showed the number of women entering emergency departments with acute alcohol intoxication had also risen. "The contribution of methamphetamine to female assault is minuscule compared with the contribution of alcohol," he told the Herald.
Dr Fulde said binge drinking was also causing young women to be more sexually permissive. "That sets up for a whole lot of problems."
There have been several violent attacks by women recently, although it is not known whether they were linked to alcohol.
Early last month, four young women were charged over a violent robbery in which the victims were allegedly knocked to the ground and assaulted.
A few days later, two women were charged with murder and aggravated robbery occasioning actual bodily harm over the murder of an 87-year-old for $700.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last year showed one in eight adults, or about 2 million people, drank at a risky level in the week surveyed.
But the increase in those drinking at a risky level in the 10 years since 1995 was greater for women than for men. Risky consumption involves more than seven standard drinks for men and five for women on any single occasion.
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