There is no male-only defense for killing a woman. Nor should there be. But if there were, the male equivalent of the female PMS defense would be the testosterone defense, the equivalent of the innocent woman defense would be the rational man defense — the equally sexist assumption that a man would not commit a crime unless he had a rational reason to do it; there would be father defenses, battered man syndromes, and special defenses tailored for the burdens of the male role. . . such as a bodyguard defense.
The bodyguard defense
Remember when Marlon Brando s son Christian was so furious that his half — sister Cheyenne had been slapped around by her boyfriend that he pulled a gun on him and then, in a struggle, shot him?87 He said it was by mistake.
Should Brando have claimed the bodyguard defense? The rationale? If a woman can kill a man who abuses her and then go free, why can’t another man also kill a man who is abusing a woman and also go free?