“Lots of men threaten this, but most of them don’t do it.”

Not exclusive to France, but I've read other troubling things about French society that make it seem that troubling things are often pushed under the rug. Things like they don't have ADHD or autism, few mental health problems, children are always well behaved, etc. hopefully this starts conversations there and they…

I agree. Normally I can’t condone any kind of killing, but to me it sounds like she had little choice. Either live as a captive or take extreme measures to escape, and since the entire system colluded to keep her under the thumb of an abuser and a rapist, she was left with no other option—other than suicide, a sad…

I was the breadwinner, so leaving a well-paying job that supported my children and me could have left us permanently on welfare. My husband was unemployed due to his addictions, so I wouldn’t have had any child support to collect.

I went to the police. Multiple times, and they did nothing.

I live in western Europe and I think that a lot of the more recent progressive advances have been made in strong reaction to the existing heinous garbage terrible hopeless bullshit circumstances. Universal health care came about in part after the incredible deprivation of the World War II years, strong labor unions…

I hate this graph so much, mostly because in part because it doesn’t even prove it’s own point.

Thank you. It is nice to be finally, mostly out of this situation. So long as our daughter is underage, he’s still a problem, but nothing like he once was. It’s nice to be able to talk about it mostly in the past tense like this.

Exactly. If this woman had had proper opportunity or resources to leave, I would be more inclined to think she deserves some kind of punishment. But I’m certain if she had left, her husband absolutely would have killed her or beaten her nearly to death, given how dangerous it is to leave an abuser and how little the…

Thank you. That is very kind. After what I went through, I hope I can say something here that might help someone else.

I assume your question is rhetorical, but just in case: when her daughter tried to report being raped by her own father to the police, the first call they made was directly to him. Shameful.

It explains in the article he had completely isolated her from her family for decades, she worked outside the home — at his business (so she had no income other then what he gave her). And it is small village and yet she had no friends. Classic abuse - the abuser cuts off the victim. She had no place to go. And oddly,…

I love the observation with that image that the husband and Christ umbrellas are doing a shitty job at being umbrellas since they’re clearly leaking. Only the wife umbrella is pulling her weight.

Not exclusive to France but France has an extremely high rate of domestic abuse. When I lived in Europe (this is twenty-five years ago so statistics have changed), the French went on and on about macho Spain, Italy, Portugal, wherever; and yet it was they who had the highest rate of domestic abuse at the time. A…

She didn’t know her son had committed suicide at the time she shot her husband, according to the Times article.

I hope I would have the courage she had to do it. Most of her life was being abused, I’m so amazed that she was able to get to the point that she could kill him. I’m sure it was a thought in her head for years and years.

The fact that she only did it after her son committed suicide- imagine how much this woman endured, imagine how close to the edge for how long she must have been. I can’t pretend for a moment that I wouldn’t do the exact same thing in that situation.

imagine? being 18 and getting trapped in this situation for basically your whole life? This is so heart breaking.

She should have been considered to have served 40 years already, since having to live with that kind of abuse is it’s own prison.

Yes. It is self-defense.