The above photo is me in the mid 2000s on a cabin trip with friends doing my best Jack Torrance impression (I am not even holding the hatchet properly and I have never killed anyone…yet ..the day ain’t over, lol).

Anyway…I’m in the midst of watching the miniseries “Candy” on Hulu, starring a very hagged up Jessica Biel, and only a mildly hagged up Melanie Lynskey. Biel plays the title character who goes on trial for killing Betty Gore (played by Lynskey) with an axe.

So Candy has what is shown as a very “calculated” affair with Gore’s husband Allan and they break it off. Then Candy goes to see Betty, while Allan is on a business trip, they get into an argument, and Betty gets hacked up. Forty one times. With an axe. The events depicted occurred in 1980, so we’re talking super ugly hairdoes and even uglier fashions. Those bulky, bulky eyeglasses, ugh!

And she can’t even get convicted. Her legal team somehow convinced the jury that this was a case of self defense. Really – did postpartum depression suffering Betty also have an axe? Did she hurl her Singer sewing machine at Candy? Hoist her crying baby at her? Nope…

I know I “should” feel mortified at this travesty of justice. But I am somehow more bothered – offended, really – that society apparently looks down upon women this much. I mean…is it that hard to accept that a woman is fully capable of murder with an axe? Are people so unwilling to accept this that they think that there MUST be extenuating circumstances involved if a woman kills someone with an axe?

We couldn’t even convict Lizzie Borden of axe murder a century earlier. Had a man done the same crime, they’d hang from their neck until dying in the 19th century or today, rot in prison or get a lethal injection. A man killing someone with an axe? Yeah, society can totally accept that!

If I’m ever going to be bold enough to kill another person with an axe, I’m going to BEG the jury to convict me – and not listen to any BS about me having controlling parents or any other psychobabble bullshit!

Next, I’ll have to see HBO Max’s take on the same story…