Frankly, I always thought that sentiment was ridiculous in the first place. Anyone who went through middle school, junior high or high school knows full well the kind of nasty behavior that females are capable of.

But there's garden-variety "mean girl," "queen bee" snark, and then there is the outrageous lunacy that we've witnessed of late.

Early last month, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a law that allows abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. The previous law had a gestational limit of 24 weeks. As she signed the bill into law, Healey was surrounded by women cheering and applauding.

Applauding? For the ability to kill a full-term baby?

Two weeks ago, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a law that makes it a crime to "interfere" with "the provision of reproductive health care" — which, of course, includes abortion and so-called gender-affirming care. The language of the law is deliberately written broadly. "Interference" includes "intimidation" and inflicting "emotional harm." This will unquestionably be used to prohibit prayer and other protests outside abortion clinics.

Sherrill, too, was photographed surrounded by a cadre of applauding women. So much for freedom of speech.

Then, just a few days ago, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, sporting a hijab, spoke to a group of Muslim men. This kind of mindless appeasement ignores the horrific abuse inflicted upon women and girls in Islamic societies. Perhaps Hochul should spend less time watching "The Handmaid's Tale" and watch the film "The Stoning of Soraya M." instead.

Also in Massachusetts, the jury in the Lindsay Clancy trial — made up of nine women and three men — has been (at this writing) deadlocked for five days and can't decide on the guilt of a woman who sent her husband on an errand and then killed her three young children — including an 8-month-old baby — by strangling them with exercise bands while he was gone.

Given how bad Clancy's acts are, it has been surprising to see throngs of women lining the streets leading up to the courthouse, dressed in pink, making little "heart" signs with their hands and expressing their support for Clancy, who has admitted to the killings but is claiming innocence because of postpartum psychosis. Many more are posting their support on social media — like the female obstetrician who said, "I don't know what else you could have done." Seriously? Even assuming that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis, there was nothing else she could have done besides murder her three children?

Some women are posting TikTok videos in which they — oops — pretend to throw their infants over stair railings, or toss them into the dryer, or set them in the dishwasher. This is apparently supposed to garner sympathy for the idea of how difficult parenting is.

Those videos are fakes, done using deliberately obvious video cuts during which a doll is substituted for the actual baby the mother was holding moments earlier.

But in other videos making the circuit, moms look to be baking with their excited little toddlers, only to slam a raw egg on the unsuspecting toddlers' heads to crack it, much to the shock and chagrin of the children, who often burst into tears while their moms laugh at them.

This is funny?

And then there are the female judges — Teresa Stokes in North Carolina, Marva Brown in New York, Veronica Galvan in Washington, Hilary Unger in Texas, Cindy Truong in Oklahoma — who have faced fierce (and justified) criticism after repeatedly releasing violent criminals who offend again. (Stokes released Decarlos Brown, who was caught on camera stabbing Iryna Zarutska to death on the Charlotte light rail.)

Or perhaps you saw Jessica Gorman, mother of murdered college student Sheridan Gorman, trying to plead her case before a congressional subcommittee. Sheridan was shot in the head and killed on Navy Pier in Chicago by an illegal immigrant. At the hearing, Washington state congresswoman Pramila Jayapal expressed her condolences to the Gormans but then bemoaned the fact that this was the fourth hearing about illegal immigrants and "sanctuary cities," and said that Congress had "other things to do."

Seriously, what is wrong with these people?

The point here is not that women are more violent than men, nor that they are uniquely unsuited for leadership roles in government, law enforcement or the judiciary. (As far as we know, the women making the "egg-cracking" and "baby-tossing" videos may well be stay-at-home moms.) Nor is it in support of the argument — now circulating widely on social media — that the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote should be repealed. (For what it's worth, only about 50% to 63% of the vote-eligible population of this country has voted in presidential elections since 1980; turnout in midterm elections is even lower — more like 40%. This is pretty consistent for men and women.)

The point is that all human beings, male and female, have the capacity for evil, stupidity, cruelty and violence — including murder — and can display weakness and shockingly poor judgment.

This is a truth that is amply demonstrated in the Bible, for those who know their scripture. Both the Old and New Testaments are filled with accounts of men and women who were brave, virtuous and faithful to God's commandments, as well as those who were venal, selfish, cowardly or wicked. If religion isn't your thing, there's plenty of evidence throughout secular history as well. In fact, I'd lay money that anyone reading this column can think of men and women they know personally whose behavior falls into either category — often both, people being what they are.

It's culturally popular to blame all the world's ills on men and their "toxic masculinity," and, by extension, to hold women up as more virtuous, more sensible, more compassionate and thus better suited to "run the world."

It's also manifestly false.

To find out more about Laura Hollis and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Kier in Sight Archives at Unsplash