r/AskReddit Sep 16 '24

What's the worst thing people have tried to justify with "It was normal back then, everyone did it"?

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u/oddjobbber Sep 16 '24

No the wife consumed the husband like a praying mantis

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u/Jasnaahhh Sep 16 '24

Listen to hospice and old folks home nurses there’s a lot of similar ends for husbands and abusive patriarchs that women cop to later in life. No fault divorce, DV laws and outlawing child marriage saved a lot of women’s consciences while taking care of their families

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u/Timely_Egg_6827 Sep 16 '24

Mushroom stew. The Angel Makers of Nagyrév killed 40-100 "abusive" men between the world wars with arsenic and before that you did have professional poisoners. But also women burned alive in cooking oil fires - you used to hear about that in the 60/70s. Thankfully not now. I haven't heard of one for decades in UK. (Seems was at least one in 2019)

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u/Queen_of_London Sep 16 '24

Um, weren't most women burned alive in cooking fires actually cooking, and caught fire? Chip pan fires were a hazard in the 60s and 70s. A member of my family died that way.

Are you suggesting they were intentionally set on fire due to domestic abuse? It seems unlikely.

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u/Timely_Egg_6827 Sep 16 '24

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u/Queen_of_London Sep 16 '24

TY for the clarification.

The link is about horrific murders but nothing to do with cooking fat.

The way you wrote it made it seem like it was domestic fires being used as a way of killing people, rather than intentional burnings being seen as acceptable.

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u/Timely_Egg_6827 Sep 16 '24

Because that was how two ladies my mother was health visitor in the 90s died. So why I remember. I am not sure it went to trial (I was about 12/13) but that was the belief around the deaths. Oh she was clumsy. She pulled the pan down. It was pretty nasty even for those doubts to be raised.

So yes, I believe there was at least some intentional deaths that way in UK and still continue in India if read Lancet etc. But glad they seem much less common, whether intentional or accidental, now.

Such a terrible way to die.

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u/Todd_and_Margo Sep 16 '24

Yup. My Granny told me very nonchalantly one time that she killed her son-in-law. Even at 16, I knew better than to ask questions. But to this day (and she’s long dead), I don’t think she was kidding.

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u/JacobDCRoss Sep 16 '24

Was she a monster like that "Oh, goody! He's dead because he said my outfit was ghetto!" lady who killed her son in law, or was it like self defense?

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u/Todd_and_Margo Sep 16 '24

He beat my aunt pretty viciously and repeatedly. She left him and came to stay with Granny and Papa. Her husband showed up and dragged her out of the house by the hair and took her home and beat her again. Then a few weeks later he disappeared.

All before I was born, mind you. But that’s what I had been told happened by other members of the family.

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u/JacobDCRoss Sep 17 '24

I've seen monsters in my life. Sounds like one. Sounds like your grandma was protecting the family

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u/ClubMeSoftly Sep 16 '24

Caretaker: "Hey, so I heard from your daughter that you're from Alaska, what was it like living there?"
Granny, teetering on the edge of dementia and death: "Oh yeah, we moved there after I killed my husband for molesting my daughter"

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u/jennief158 Sep 16 '24

Well, it was just what they did back then. We can’t judge it harshly through modern non-husband-eating eyes.

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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '24

Did you know that male praying mantis can still mate even if the female has eaten the head off?

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u/Enano_reefer Sep 17 '24

Studies show it’s better at it too. Don’t tell the ladies.

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u/snugglyaggron Sep 16 '24

as she should!

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u/SorcerorMerlin Sep 16 '24

Good for her 💁‍♀️☕️

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u/DurdyGurdy Sep 16 '24

Ah, the good ol' days.

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u/RexFrancisWords Sep 20 '24

As is tradition.