Lorena Bobbitt

We are hearing a lot of empty rhetoric about what the latest Bobbitt verdict really means (“Lorena Bobbitt Acquitted in Mutilation of Husband,” Jan. 22). “Is it OK for women to cut off their husband’s penis? Was it a feminist act?” What utter, bigoted nonsense! We didn’t hear any such comments or posturing about the verdict in John Wayne Bobbitt’s trial. “Is it OK for a man to rape and batter his wife?”

I heard a lawyer, a woman, proclaim that all she had to do was leave. Easy for her to say. She had a prestigious legal career, money, full knowledge of the law and how to use the mighty power of the law to protect herself. These things are not commonly possessed by manicurists.

Blaming Lorena Bobbitt for her victimhood by saying she could just get out of the horrible situation she was living in by leaving her abusive husband is like saying that the abused and ghettoized poor victims of crime in our urban slums are really to blame for the high rate of murders, rapes, and robberies in their poverty-stricken neighborhoods because they obstinately refuse to move into the affluent suburbs. The jury heard all the evidence and couldn’t find it in their hearts to convict her. They thought she was a little crazy. Isn’t that enough?

J. L. PHILLIPS

Capistrano Beach

Considering the amount of abuse Lorena Bobbitt was subjected to during her marriage, I’d say she mutilated her husband while in a state of temporary sanity.

ALYSON ROSS

Alhambra

John Wayne Bobbitt was found innocent. Lorena Bobbitt was found not guilty. I guess, nothing ever happened then, huh?

EDGAR SOLLER

Fontana