[VLM]

Its not like the story would have been any less unsavory if he was talking about his boyfriend.

My gut level guess, is this being an extremely old argument, the headline for this one was adjacent to a Reiser headline, so its more of a bad taste style of the times than a long term trend or hidden social bias.

[gonnakillme]

It /would/ have been less unsavory if he were talking about his boyfriend, though; women are exposed to violence (especially in relationships) in a way and at a scale that men just aren't. The way this is presented -- of /course/ everyone can relate to wanting to kill their ex-girlfriend -- is especially gross.

I'm not sure what Hans Reiser has to do with anything and it's a little strange that you brought him up. Wikipedia says Nina Reiser's disappearance was in 2006, a year after this post was made.

[VLM]

Thank you for the second paragraph you are completely correct and I was wrong about the chronological order of those events.

On the other hand I think we are going to have to disagree on your first paragraph. I think you have a perfectly good axe, I just wouldn't grind it there. That component of the original article sucks as a writing strategy without bringing male/female drama into the picture clouding the overall issue of using images of violence inappropriately. I wouldn't downvote you for it, but someone apparently is doing so, which is too bad.