History Main / DomesticAbuse

* ''Webcomic/TheComebackPathOfPrincessFromMars'' features Morphus (Mofu) Turrus Jr. who, along with his father, browbeat and physically abused the father of the protagonist Olga Perez into signing her over for ArrangedMarriage, at age 8. Flashbacks show that for the next 10 years, Mofu Jr. loved to verbally, physically, and emotionally brutalize her for laughs, with the constant threat that the moment she came of age and the marriage became legit, he would make her a SexSlave, not just raping her himself by imperial law, but passing her around as a sex toy to his friends, both in exchange for favors and for laughs. This only comes to a screeching halt in chapter 4 because she beats him into intensive care in a duel he himself demanded and he gets shipped off to prison, despite being on a medical stretcher, for being caught '''on camera''' using illegal drugs, and the bloodwork from the medics attending him also provided hard evidence of said drug use.

* ''Film/NotWithoutMyDaughter'' has Betty Mahmoody, played by Creator/SallyField, being beaten by her Iranian husband, Moody, played by Creator/AlfredMolina. They were happily married in America and they had a daughter named Mahtob. They all went to Tehran, Iran on vacation for two weeks to visit Moody's family. After the two weeks ended, he wants his wife and child to stay in Iran and try to conform to the customs there. Betty refuses for this to happen, and Moody slaps her to make her stay. Betty and Mahtob secretly try to get out of Iran with the help of the Swiss Embassy and a few sympathetic Iranians. If Moody ever suspected that she was trying to escape or be late for something, he would beat her, even in front of public.

** Emily, Lauren's friend, is being abused by her boyfriend Daniel. This sparks the plot, as Lauren tries to stand up for her. Emily still doesn't leave him though, and blames herself for making him mad.

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': Stella, Stolas' wife, goes out of her way to torment him [[{{Sadist}} because she enjyos watching him squirm]]. To wit, she threw parties ''that celebrated how they weren't divorced yet'' and openly demeaned Stolas at said parties, often ''while he was in earshot''. While it's established that the two are part of an ArrangedMarriage, it's pretty clear Stolas was the one who put the most effort into making the marriage work and failed anyway. Notably, not only is her anger at Stolas sleeping with Blitzo mostly due to how it would affect her reputation, but the minute Stolas decides to stand up to her and stop taking her abuse (complete with catching her hand before she can slap him), [[spoiler:she hires Striker to ''[[DisproportionateRetribution assassinate her own husband]]'']]. It's telling that while Stolas' adultery isn't entirely portrayed as a good thing, [[SympatheticAdulterer his relationship with Blitzo is still treated sympathetically]].

** Seeing a man beat his wife or girlfriend is a major BerserkButton for Jason Todd. He once (allegedly) killed a man for beating his girlfriend so badly [[spoiler: that it caused her to commit suicide -- the boyfriend got away scot-free because he was the son of a diplomat, and this drove Jason to take matters into his own hands]].

* ''Film/RoadHouse'': After Brad Wesley's mistress is [[DoYouWantToCopulate too forward]] one time too many with Dalton, she's dragged out of the roadhouse by one of his goons. She's next seen in Wesley's mansion with a bruised-up face.

* ''Heavily'' implied in the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' episode "Beneath", with Tye Longshadow's mother and her smug, hulking (by normal human standards) boyfriend, Maurice. By the end of the episode, he ends up being unrelated to the bigger events of the story and is all set up to lose his job and get arrested as part of a mundane racket of pirated [=DVDs=] -- [[WordOfGod which worked, according to the producer]] -- but there's still this:
-->'''Mrs. Longshadow:''' (outside the house, alone with her son's friend, her face partly in shadow) Don't mind Maurice. He's... having a bad day.
-->'''Jaime:''' I hear he has a ''lot'' of bad days.
-->'''Mrs. Longshadow:''' (desperately) Good ones, too! (not looking at Jaime, face out of the shadows, as she finally starts to realize what she's saying) ...occasionally...

* ''Film/CutToTheChase'': Isobel was in a relationship with a guy, and wouldn't leave after he gave her a black eye in spite of Max warning that he'd also kill her someday. He's the prime suspect to Max when she disappears, but it turns out he isn't responsible. [[spoiler:It turns out that she suffered this again even worse as she'd been seeing Nola and her boss at the same time. Nola found out, with Izzy leaving her because she found out she's a hitwoman. Izzy was then beaten up and kidnapped by Nola, who held her captive so she could never leave her.]]

* ''Film/CutToTheChase'': Isobel was in a relationship with a guy, and wouldn't leave after he gave her a black eye in spite of Max warning that he'd also kill her someday. He's the prime suspect to Max when she disappears, but it turns out he isn't responsible. [[spoiler:It turns out that she suffered this again even worse as she'd been seeing Nola and her boss at the same time. Nola found out, with Izzy leaving her because found out she's a hitwoman. Izzy was then beaten up and kidnapped by Nola, who held her captive so she could never leave her.]]

* In ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'', at some point Gamzee and Terezi's [[FoeYay relationship]] stops being a [[TheMasochismTango typical black romance]] and starts being this, though the human kids have trouble telling where the line is.

* The newspaper comic ''ComicStrip/BringingUpFather'' used to ''own'' this trope, at least until the sixties. Jiggs' wife Maggie was notoriously violent, and her rolling pin became a trademark of the comic. Lampshaded in a [[http://therainer.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html vintage issue]] of ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'', where [[DarkerAndEdgier Jiggs' injuries]] are shown in a [[http://tinyurl.com/6k46y6 fairly gruesome realistic style]]. This satire on domestic abuse ran in Mad #17, 1954.

** Seeing a man beat his wife or girlfriend is a major BerserkButton for Jason Todd. He once killed a man for beating his girlfriend so badly [[spoiler: that it caused her to commit suicide -- the boyfriend got away scot-free because he was the son of a diplomat, and this drove Jason to take matters into his own hands]].

* ''Film/{{Bloodthirsty}}'': While influenced by the changes she's undergoing, Grey chokes her girlfriend Charlie before she knocks her senseless by tossing her against the wall. That being said, she quickly regrets it and urges Charlie to leave herself. At the time she also clearly isn't in her right mind.

* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': Mad Dog, a gang boss, is this trope for his girlfriend Bunny, and played ''dead seriously''. He's so violently possessive of her that he'll punish her for having a ''best friend'', and wreck said best friend's life so horribly she's ''incapable of facing reality'' and runs away. He also manipulates Bunny's emotions to try and get her to do as he pleases, only to snap into abuser mode a second later, a technique real life abusers use. The poor girl is absolutely ''terrified'' of him as a result. Not helping is that the whole thing between Bunny and Kitty was eventually confirmed to have been romantic in nature so his ideology makes some sense in that he's mad at his girlfriend for being in love with another, although it ''doesn't'' excuse the horrific abuse and might have even happened ''because'' of it.

** Even more nightmarish is that through a case of GettingCrapPastTheRadar it's heavily implied that Mad Dog had Bunny ''gang raped'' and even forced her into prostitution. At least she's saved by the end...

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': PlayedForDrama. [[spoiler:At the end of episode 3, she slaps Powder hard enough to knock her down and give her a nosebleed, and then grabs her face in a clearly harmful way while blaming her for their family's deaths. This is a fairly understandable reaction, considering that they had just been killed as a direct result of Powder's actions... but it's nonetheless intensely traumatizing for Powder, a child who also just lost them and knows it's her fault.]]

* Another Creator/{{Lifetime}} movie, ''No One Would Tell'', is based on a true story about a teenage girl who is abused [[spoiler:and later killed]] by her boyfriend. The film is notable in that [[Series/TheWonderYears Fred Savage]] plays the abusive boyfriend and [[Series/FullHouse Candace Cameron]] portrays his girlfriend/victim.

* ''ComicBook/{{Trouble}}'', which was supposed to be about Franchise/SpiderMan's parents, Uncle Ben, and Aunt May, had May fearing for the safety of her and her mother if her dad found out about her TeenPregnancy.

** There's also the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' episode "A Once And Future Thing," in which a meek man who's easily dominated by his wife builds a time machine and tries to use it to get away from her. When he eventually seizes its terrifying potential and becomes a super-villain by playing with the timestream, she's changed her tune and is deeply intimidated by his power (it's hinted that he placed her mother in some kind of futuristic torture chamber). Neither her verbal abuse before he created his machine or his outright bullying of her are played for laughs, and in the end Batman causes that man to repeatedly face his wife's abuse by putting him in a [[StableTimeLoop never-ending time loop]].