"Boo fucking hoo"
"No sympathy"
"She could just leave"
"She chooses to be there."
It's funny, isn't it, how MN can be quick to insist it's a feminist place so long as the victim is victimy enough. You'd never tell a woman in Relationships to "just leave, it's so simply", or sneer at her with "boo fucking hoo".
Like hell she can just leave. He raped one of his wives. He's known for violence. He has links to the US mob and to Russia, who are fond of 'removing' their problems, and if she talks, she could be considered a problem to him. More importantly, she has a son, and it's not like Trump will let her take him. With his money he can buy anything. He can buy people. He already has.
Unless she flees alone and goes into anonymous hiding, she cannot leave.
A feminist is supposed to believe in a woman's freedom to choose. Choose children, or not children. Work, or to not work. Choose to marry for love, or for practicality. When we start policing women's choices - "she didn't marry PROPERLY!" - we become as bad as pro-lifers. If she is a victim, she deserves our sympathy as much as any other victim. Because leaving is never easy, and there are plenty of women trapped in abusive relationships who put on a brave face and withstand it either for their own personal safety or that of their children, because they feel to attempt to leave - the most dangerous time of a relationship with a violent man and the time they're most likely to be killed - would be too much of a risk.