Yesterday while having lunch in the breakroom with a handful of coworkers, somebody decided to put the news on. In between longer stories, the station reported a murder in which a woman had stabbed her husband 37 times. One of my female coworkers immediately proclaimed "he must have done something really bad". Her boyfriend chimed in with "maybe he cheated on her", to which another female coworker responded "I bet he was abusing her."

I asked them if it had been a story about a man killing his wife if they would also jump to conclusions as to why his actions were justified, and I was met with "it's different". When I tried to get them to elaborate they told me "you just don't understand".

I was in the same situation a few weeks ago, but instead the story was about a women who was abusing her boyfriend. I remember that one clearly. "Wait, she was abusing him?!", followed by a few of the women giggling. When I tried to get them to explain why that was funny, I was met with the same excuse: "it's different".

Makes me want to rip my hair out.