Every so often, a trial happens that makes global headlines. It quickly gets whipped up by the media circus (that now, somehow, includes TikTok and its seemingly never-ending parade of clowns).
The recent Lindsay Clancy case is a prime example. I’m pretty sure everyone has heard about it and has an opinion. I know I do.
After a massive five-week trial, the judge declared a mistrial on September 4, 2026, due to an 11-1 deadlocked jury. The trial ended with one lone holdout juror who refused to agree to an insanity/lack of criminal responsibility acquittal.
I’m not here to litigate specific medical diagnoses, rehash the court case, or dissect the unthinkable details of a tragedy.
What worries me is the broader cultural fallout: we seem to be reaching a point of total lack of female accountability.
Acknowledging systemic issues or medical conditions shouldn’t mean completely removing individual agency. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that treating women as incapable of accountability is actually a form of regressive soft-bigotry.
Now, before the internet mobs come for me, let’s clear something up. The conversation around gender dynamics has shifted wildly in recent years, but if I’m looking at my own life? Men weren’t usually the problem.
In fact, most of my life’s plot twists have been orchestrated by female nemeses (nemesises? Whatever, you know what I mean). I’m convinced every Gen X woman has at least one corporate or neighbourhood arch-nemesis who plots our downfall over a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio.
If anyone is going to take me down, it’s not the faceless patriarchy – it’s Pam from Number 23. Pam’s plotting works because she has agency, drive and a master’s degree in passive-aggressive WhatsApp messages and the tactical use of the thumbs-up emoji.
And that’s exactly what’s missing from the current cultural narrative.
When the media or public discourse rushes to scrub away a woman’s accountability (chalking up every terrible action entirely to external pressures, systemic failures or hormones) it isn’t progress.
It’s a step backward. It suggests that women lack the moral framework or the mental fortitude to be held to the same standards as men.
By framing every female misstep solely as a by-product of a medical crisis, we are accidentally reverting to Victorian-era logic.
We are essentially saying, “Oh, bless her, she couldn’t help it, she’s just a delicate woman with a touch of the vapours”. But true empowerment means owning the whole human spectrum – the good, the bad and the downright ugly. If we want an equal seat at the table, we have to accept equal responsibility if we decide to flip the table over.
We saw the peak of this hyper-correction during the height of the #MeToo era, which quickly birthed the “Believe All Women” mantra. Don’t get me wrong: exposing actual monsters was a necessary cultural house-cleaning.
But, the moment we shifted from “listen to women” to “blindly believe every woman without question or due process”, we crossed a dangerous line. We created a cultural shield that assumed women are inherently too pure, too victimised, or too moral to ever lie, manipulate, or act out of malice.
And honestly? That does a massive disservice to our intelligence. It treats us like children who need protection from the consequences of our own actions. If you blanket-exempt an entire gender from scrutiny, you aren’t liberating them; you’re putting them in a gilded cage and calling it progress.
Let’s stop treating women like fragile, hormonal leaves blowing helplessly in the wind of circumstance. We are fully realised human beings. We are capable of incredible leadership, brilliant innovation and deep empathy.
But, you know what? We are also fully capable of being absolute villains, calculated schemers and deeply flawed individuals.
To deny women their capacity for bad behaviour is to deny us our full humanity. True equality means having the right to fail, the right to face the music and the right to be judged by the content of our character – even when that character is doing something terrible.
I’m a 51-year-old, Scottish woman. I’ve been around the block, survived the 1980s hair trends and lived through enough cultural shifts to know that we are over-complicating something incredibly simple.
So, I’ll just come out and say it: I don’t believe in modern feminism. I don’t believe in any movement that slices us up into groups, builds gilded cages out of victimhood, or treats one half of the population as fragile leaves and the other as inherent monsters.
I’m for all of us.
I’m for treating people as fully realised individuals, responsible for their own triumphs and their own disasters. It’s time to stop letting the media circus and the TikTok clowns convince us that women lack the agency to face consequences.
We are entirely capable of being the heroes of our stories, and yes, we are entirely capable of being the villains. To pretend otherwise isn’t uplifting; it’s patronising.
Let’s ditch the vapours, drop the excuses and own the whole human spectrum – villainy, Pinot Grigio and all.
Am I onto something, or have I finally lost the plot?
Let’s talk about it. More importantly, tell me about your ‘Pam’. What’s her name, what’s her street number and what emoji is she using to slowly destroy your sanity?
Let’s chat more in the comments below 👇.
Citizen Jane x ✌️
Now it’s your turn! Join me here and let’s keep talking…👇🗣📣