Should a woman be able to “tolerate” abuse because she has a demanding job? Or because she’s black? A disturbing Guardian article exposes the stereotypes that keep women who kill their abusers from getting a fair trial. The Guardian ’s Julie Bindel ( no stranger to Jezebel) writes that while British men who kill their wives often use the defense of “provocation” to reduce their sentences to manslaughter, women who kill abusive husbands or boyfriend are often convicted of murder. She contrasts the case of Sara Thornton, who killed her husband after he repeatedly beat her, with that of Joseph McGrail, who kicked his common-law wife to death. A judge in Thornton’s case said she should have “walked out or gone upstairs” instead of killing her husband; she was sentenced to life in prison. The judge in McGrail case, meanwhile, expressed “every sympathy” for him, and said his wife “would have tried the patience of …
