A Haven For Battered Women In Alabama?

Women protected by special local ordinance in Alabama

Jasper, Alabama
Jan. 3, 2010

The women's movement, displaying its power and success, has penetrated into the smallest hamlets, nooks and crannies of the U.S. A small town in Alabama is a prime example.

Jasper, Alabama, now a town of more than 15,000 people, was once a thriving coal community of world importance. Because business men from around the globe were frequent visitors to Jasper, and state political leaders were often found there. Jasper was a cosmopolitan town that was impacted by international customs and fashions that made it a very progresive community, with modern ideas.

This is still evident today, even though Jasper's claims to international importance have faded over time with the demise of coal. An early advocate for women's rights, Jasper passed a municipal ordinance making it unlawful for a man to beat his wife with a stick larger in diameter than his thumb.

An unexpected result of the law is that, per capita, Jasper has the largest percentage of men without thumbs or with tiny thumbs of any town in the U.S. One in every five Jasper men either has no thumbs or have tiny thumbs, some no larger than a switch. Some of these men have acquired therapeutic devices that can be used as thumbs but these are very inferior to real thumbs, and cannot be used to circumvent the law. Another curious result is that one in seven Jasper men have never hitch-hiked.