I think the expert witnesses for the defense, ALV and Fonseca, were deliberately lying in their portrayal of the relationship between Jodi and Travis, but I think on a basic level they believed he deserved what he got. They seem to be of a particular breed of radical feminist that are openly hostile to men, and carry a fierce resentment of the historically patriarchal structure of society. They fail to acknowledge that women have always had their unique sphere of influence, and more often than not the activities of men have served their purposes just as well. They also seem stuck in the past, and are reluctant to admit that society has changed and that women today function on much more equal ground in relationships and in traditionally male roles, and that with that equality comes an equal amount of accountability.
I don't agree with this about women, because in my experience it's not true. Most women who classify themselves as feminists (they tended to come of age in the '60's and '70's) are not hostile to men, they just want things to be more fair. This is understandable.
Ironically, in the court, because he kept pointing out gender-bias, Martinez was much closer than ALV to the traditional run-of-the-mill feminism that spends most of its energy on non-discrimination. Funny thing about that. Equally ironically, ALV and Fonseca tried to smackdown this "feminist" view of world, by scoffing at Martinez when he went in this direction.
This feminist drive to be equal plays in to what I'm going to say next.
What was despicable about Fonseca and ALV is that their feminist background had them insisting: a) women are victims of men and b) they should be treated equally to men. This is where the fraud comes in, IMO: if they believed men and women are equal, then they had to believe that men can be victims of women. There is a basic dishonesty to their brand of "feminism", and they are highly sexist.
Let me be clear, ALV's and Fonseca's brand of feminism (not all feminist expression, which is often right on), and its premise is profoundly discriminatory and unjust. If we hypothetically switched the genders around and asked Fonseca and ALV to imagine their expert positions in reverse, they would say the reverse is not possible. Just because. They would assert this despite the statistical evidence to the contrary.
A respectable expert, someone perhaps with an above average Ph.D. would routinely examine their assumptions this way, by hypothesizing a flip side.
And recall, JM repeatedly asked ALV to hypothesize. She almost didn't know the concept or the word. She was incapable of imagining any point of view other than her position. This is rank incompetence and reflects a total lack of empathy or the ability to see someone else's perspective and have fellow feeling. Sure, she got sucked in by Jodi, but that's seduction or projection, not empathy:it's about ALV subsuming herself into Jodi. And she certainly had no fellow-feeling for anyone else, especially the Alexanders, the judge, and JM.
And, let me point out, finally, that lack of empathy is a major ingredient in relationship violence (not to mention psychopathy). One wonders what ALV's own life has been like and what role she might herself have played in destructive relationships.
Also ALV luuuuurves herself some power, again an ingredient of domestic violence. She clearly luuuurves to smackdown the men in her groups. She luuurved having her fan club in court. She luuurved the idea of being traumatized by the media (sound familiar?). She luuurves to be right. When her "rightness" has no basis in fact, she simply maintains everyone else is stupid if they can't see it. She must have killed herself that JSS was a woman (not a man) with more power than she: what's to complain about if you're her brand of feminist and a woman is in the power position, when your whole life you've declared men to be in the power position, so you could smack them down? (I tell you, she's sexist as all get out.)
And then there's the manipulation in "It's not a yes or no answer." By this statement, ALV's insisting no one can argue with her and be right. This again, is a craven power play, all the dodging, the whole web of pseudo-expertise, twisting facts to suit her needs, trying to put everyone in thrall to her.... The only thing that held her up was the intervention of the law (under the label perjury) and even then, she tried to get around it, narcissistically excusing herself from her obligation to be at court. (Terse correction by JSS: another of JSS's several gems, IMO).
The person in the room ALV was most like—the only one she felt sorry for—was Jodi: narcissist, manipulator, victim-cryer, incapable of empathy. She adored Jodi like she adored herself, and Jodi was her gravy train to special-snowflakedness, indulgent, grifting, income earned from BS. The Perryville Princess's every little foible: that's ALV's style. With the boys in thrall: Ryan, Abe, Matt, Travis, the guy on the plane on the one hand, the seven dwarfs on the other. Oh, and I even forgot the trips out of state: Jodi and ALV both, so important the two of them are. Oh, and the bucket list of famous places: Grand Canyon and the media circus Arias trial. Check and check.
I wonder if ALV is borderline....
Gosh, I've off the cuff in 5 minutes generated quite a profile, patterns I haven't paid attention to before. I'm especially proud of ALV's seven dwarfs being analogous to Jodi's "boyfriends". Bwahahaha! I'd love to hear additions, two cents, elaborations, or total "I'm not buying that"...
