I’m not going to quote from the article because I think its worth everyone giving it a good read all the way through.
pandagon.net: Battering Is Not Losing Your Head
Two important points.
First, all domestic violence is wrong.
Second, systematic abuse is different from ‘one off’ abuse.
As a rule, the screaming heard from people about the horrors of domestic abuse isn’t about the one time a husband smacked his wife.  Its about how he does it on a regular basis, along with doing everything he can to make sure that his wife can’t leave or feels like she can’t leave.
Thats very different from what we know Ms. Nordegren is doing (though she is very very wrong as well).
MRA (Men’s Rights Advocates) are taking this as a sign that women abuse men as well.  And therefor, its all the same.  This brings us around to the idea of ‘partial fairness’ that I come back to again and again.
If there is a gang of boys from the west side of town who, every day, come around and beat the tar out of boys on the east side of town, steal their toys, money, and rip their clothes and such, and then, one day, a boy from the east side goes and steals 10 bucks from the boys on the west side, we would hardly think that the west side boys should be handled the same as the east.  That would be nuts.  Does the east side boy deserve to be punished?  Sure, but only a very flawed system would think that the systematic abuse perpetrated by the westies should be handled the same as the one-off of the easties.  Especially after years, lets say, of the powers that be allowing the westies to continue their poor behavior.
The situations are not, in fact, the same, UNLESS you decide to completely ignore the big picture.
Thats the core idea of partial fairness.  Ignore the big picture, look only at the very specific incident in question.
On the plus side, if you are the one in power, that works out pretty damn well for you.