For weeks we have all been informed about the case of Lindsay Clancy, the woman who killed her three children and then attempted suicide, leaving her paralyzed. As often happens with particularly bloody and horrible news stories, the case has become media coverage and is also the subject of discussion outside the United States. One of the reasons is that there has been talk of possible postpartum depression or psychosis and therefore of potential inability to understand and will.

It is not strange that in this case too, as always, there were many (mostly if not exclusively women) who empathized with the accused, due to postpartum depression, given that it is a fairly widespread problem that is often not addressed correctly. Others, on the contrary, think that no type of illness or mental impediment should be used to exonerate someone.

Kill your children (knowingly or not) and become a role model

In this case, however, the story took a direction that we can undoubtedly define as crazy, almost incredible. Not only have many voices been raised in support of the accused, but a real movement of admirers has been created. Hundreds of women showed up outside the court wearing pink t-shirts in honor of Lindsay, and many others expressed not only solidarity, but even identification: the trend began on social media of mothers filming themselves crying while holding their children in their arms, with the words “I am Lindsay” or “I am like Lindsay”.

The aim in theory would be to spread awareness about postpartum depression, to make women feel less alone (and less guilty) and at the same time teach everyone else that it is a serious thing that can affect anyone. And that’s fine; but there are problems. First of all, it is not at all certain that psychosis caused the murders, nor that this, possibly, had anything to do with childbirth: there is no agreement among experts on this and no verdict has been reached. But after all, even before the trial began, those who wanted to defend her had already decided that undoubtedly she could only have acted out of unspeakable suffering.

It seems like it’s normal to contemplate infanticide

Furthermore, if it is very right to shed light on this problem and demand greater understanding of the phenomenon, this does not mean that it becomes right and normal to proclaim from the rooftops that one identifies with someone who killed three children. Much less film yourself with your own children, saying that you are like Lindsay: are we calmly stating in public that we too, exhausted by the weight of motherhood, could kill our own tomorrow? I really hope not, both because it would mean that we would find ourselves with hundreds, if not thousands, of children to be given up for adoption, and because it is also very stupid – and offensive – to inextricably associate postpartum depression with infanticide.

First of all, to tell the truth, it is wrong to associate any form of tiredness and suffering related to motherhood with depression, which is a clinical condition that does not always occur in all women every time they give birth (fortunately; in fact, the incidence ranges from 6% to 12%, so it is unlikely that all these influencers have suffered from it). There is no point in leading them to believe that if they are exhausted or sad or exasperated, they are suffering from it.

If it is something serious – and it is – you need to talk about it with caution and use this expression only for confirmed cases, not for every mother who feels down. In both cases we need to be understanding and forgiving, but they cannot be put on the same level. Among other things, someone who films himself crying (and also films his son) to receive comments on social media perhaps has other problems, first of all.

Mental health only comes into play with women

One cannot help but compare this situation with that which occurs during a femicide. In these cases, which become equally well known and discussed (especially if the victim was young and pretty, to be honest), public opinion (and even journalists and “experts”) very rarely takes into consideration the hypothesis of a mental health problem: the man killed because he is a man and because she was a woman. Nobody cares about his family and medical history, and few, I think, would dream of filming themselves writing, for example “I come from Federico Vella” because I am being treated by a psychiatrist. And thank goodness.

The fact is that mental health is a real problem, which can really be one of the causes of a murder (regardless of the sex of the victim). Whether this should then lead to a full acquittal or another type of sentence is not up to us to say; certainly, however, we should all know that it is a factor to take into consideration, if only to understand the dynamics, which is also useful for us to try to prevent other similar episodes.

It would therefore be important to talk about the mental state of men who commit feminicides, but when you try to do so you are accused of wanting to justify them – which has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Why, then, in cases of infanticide committed by mothers (who are the majority) is there no doubt whatsoever, and even the expectation that the woman should not be convicted? Postpartum depression is not the only disorder that can cause violent behavior towards oneself and others. And it’s not that men are more guilty of a possible mental pathology than women who give birth. Are we perhaps in the presence of a double standard?