this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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[–] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 94 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sometimes husbands expired under mysterious circumstances.

[–] starik@lemmy.zip 55 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The murder clearance rate in the US is around 55%. Almost half of all murders go unsolved.

It obviously varies by jurisdiction, with some being much better and some much worse. In Flint, Michigan, less than 18% of murders are solved.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 45 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I bet many more didn't even get reported as murders in the first place. There are probably a shit load of cases from back in the day with 1950s wives poisoning their husbands or some shit that just got chalked up to heart attacks.

[–] user224 22 points 1 week ago

Stabbed in the heart.
"Let's call that heart attack."

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My wife's grandmother casually makes jokes about the types of ways she would poison somebody and how she would get away with it.

It's uncomfortable but she's old and dgaf.

[–] threatcat@infosec.pub 7 points 1 week ago

I once saw a presentation where someone correlated the opening of banking and credit services to women and their steep rise in the 70s with the corresponding drop in deaths by poisoning.

I’ve half-heartedly tried to find these numbers, but failure hasn’t stopped me from propagating this story

There's a shit ton of knowledge about what plants are good to eat and what aren't that the older generations are hoarding from us

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

That actually sounds pretty good already. I would have thought it would be lower.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 47 points 1 week ago (4 children)

For decades they would show that the divorce rates in cultures with arranged marriages was much lower. I recall this from some anthropology classes in college.

Not sure if that’s better though. There was probably enormous family pressure not to divorce (or other consequences) so people would live in abusive or otherwise unhealthy relationships. That’s just my guess though.

[–] SexualPolytope 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yeah, I can tell from experience. In India, the older folks almost have a taboo against divorce. It was getting better, but with the re-emergence of religious extremism, it's probably gonna get worse.

[–] abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

It's always interesting to see the people who advocate against divorce too. Divorce should be banned? What's your ex-wife's story? Oh you regularly screamed at her and abused her and treat her like a live in slave so she left? Sounds like you just didn't want her to be able to get away from your useless ass.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago

The old college course I mentioned specifically cited India and compared divorce rates with that of the US.

I don’t know about all cultures that practice arranged marriages, but I know that in Pakistan marriages are often arranged between cousins (of various degrees, including first cousins.)

If that’s not “family pressure not to divorce,” I don’t know what is. You’d be pretty much stuck with your ex in your life forever anyway.

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

We really don't have to go that far back in time for divorce to have been a nearly impossible prospect for women on this side of the world. Prior to the 70s women could not access credit without a male co-signer so there was essentially no concept of a woman owning a car or home independently. In the decades preceding that, women were put in asylums and medicated for disobeying their husbands with a diagnosis of hysteria. This is all within our parents or grandparents lifetimes.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

My parents are from China, arranged marriage, there was like a time where they used to argue a lot about stuff... financially related stuff... I overheard my mom threatening divorce, I mean, she was the aggressor to be clear, my mom made the most money in the household and she was just mad at my dad for, and I quote, "such a useless man", I mean this is mom that called me and my brother useless kids too...

I remember feeling so scared about the threat of divorce, like I'd probably have to follow my mom purely for the better financial stability, but then I feel like my mom would've gotten even more abusive since without the stable household, and I felt an overwhelming sense of dread... I was a teen during that time...

But luckily the divorce never happened... I'm assuming they stayed together for us, their kids.

Honestly if me and my brother died, I bet their marriage is like instantly over.

Children are like the main purpose of marriages in conservative households.

I think most marriages in China falls apart because of alcoholism or gambling or cheating.

[–] Darkard@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

It was the go-to gag of any sitcom for about 40 years that the husband and wife hated each others guts but stuck it out for "reasons"

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

And the guy always says something in the line of “one of these days I’m going to snap and murder you” cue laughtrack.

[–] lost_faith@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"One of these day's Alice, one of these days. Pow, zoom, to the moon"

  • The Honeymooners

Haha that metaphor for abuse and space travel really makes you think doesn't it

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Ah yes, all the while setting up their future expectations for what a relationship should be. So good, so healthy.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

No joke, this is the reason my parents stuck together, I'm pretty sure.

[–] user224 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is my mom.
"I'd divorce, but that's against the god."

[–] 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So switch gods, divorce, and switch back?

We got plenty of god flavors for picking.

King Henry VIII approves

[–] m0darn@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The hospital wouldn't admit my grandmother who was in labour without her husband there to sign the papers

[–] pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 week ago

I was born in 1996 in Texas. There were complications. My mom and I both nearly died. I’m not sure of all the details, since I was a baby. It was medically necessary that my mom have a hysterectomy afterwards. Even so, she needed both my father and her father to sign off on it before they’d go through with the procedure. So, two male relatives had to give consent before she could take care of her own health.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If that isn't love, I don't know what is.

[–] m0darn@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I don't understand your comment

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] m0darn@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're saying my grandfather didn't love my grandmother?

Under the laws of the state of Texas, yes.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

It is sarcasm.

Women were treated as children and men had all the power in a relationship. So yeah, divorce rates were lower because lots of women were trapped.

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 1 week ago

Yep. And even if both the man and woman mutually agreed their relationship wasn't working out, they would stay married on paper to avoid shame.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

[off topic?]

Really funny book about an aging serial killer who just wants to be left alone...

Too Old For This, by Samantha Downing

https://bookshop.org/p/books/too-old-for-this-samantha-downing/af6672f630997480

[–] Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, they lasted. I hate this mentality that these women were chained to their man. There was bad ones but so many were great marriages and you saw it in their old age. They all weathered a lot of history together and grew from it

[–] Seleni@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Some did—my paternal grandparents were a love-at-first-sight case. After my grandfather passed away, my grandmother was so heartbroken she basically stopped living.

Some didn’t—it wasn’t after my maternal grandfather held grandma’s hand to the hot stove, or beat her black and blue, that she finally got up the nerve to throw him out and file for divorce; it was when he started to go after their kids. Even so, as a single mother she faced all kinds of difficulties and discrimination socially and in the workforce.

But I can’t even imagine what things would have been like if she had been forced to stick with him.

And regardless of how much my paternal grandparents loved each other, they were still chained together, both by society’s expectations and by laws that, for example, wouldn’t let my grandmother have her own bank account until the mid-70s.

I'm just thinking about Grammy and Grumpa. After they divorced, Grammy married this abusive piece of shit to help her pay the bills. If divorce were illegal, we could have avoided that. Also Grumpa is gay as buttered biscuits and so were his husbands, so like he wouldn't have had any husbands if he couldn't get divorced and that would have been miserable. I will not have that reality for my five favorite grandfathers. Yay divorce!