Scarlet Heart: Ming Yu slaps Yin E hard enough to bruise his face because he said her temper is worse than Ruo Xi's. When Yin E tells his brothers they react like he's making a fuss over nothing.
The soap opera Neighbours has Yashvi "hilariously" punch Ben in the groin because she was annoyed with him. Steph shouts in her stepson Boyd's face and punches Paul for jilting her mother at the altar. When Rhys angrily raises his voice to Susan, Vanessa is appalled that he thinks it's alright to "talk to women like that."
Played straight in The Newsroom. Sloan Sabbith pushes Neal Sampat against the wall for making up imaginary insults for her.
America's Funniest Home Videos plays a video of an angry woman at a wedding party who punches a man in the head when he attempts to remove the bride's garter with his teeth.
In COPS a girlfriend accuses her boyfriend of hitting her. The boyfriend is bloodied, scratched up, and his shirt is ripped apart but the girlfriend doesn't have a mark on her. She plants drugs in her boyfriend's car and the boyfriend is arrested for assault and drug possession.
Subverted in an episode of Friends when Joey's new girlfriend hits him hard while trying to be playful. His friends laugh at him for being terrified of her. When Joey protests the hitting, she says "Oh, you're making fun of me! Stop making fun of me!" and hits him harder. Rachel realizes how wrong they were to joke about after experiencing it for herself, and since Joey can't get away with hitting her back, Rachel does it for him.
In the season finale, it's revealed that Rose faked Charlie's death and kept him prisoner in her house for four years after she caught Charlie cheating on her during their honeymoon. Rose shot him with tranquilizers before sex. Charlie's mother and brother shrug this off and call the police on Charlie when he escapes from Rose and says he'll get revenge.
Lampshaded in the Red Dwarf special "Can't Smeg, Won't Smeg", when Lister says that whenever a woman can't come up with a good comeback, they always hit people. Kochanski responds by whacking him with a frying pan.
Tool Academy shows the girlfriends slapping and punching their Jerkass boyfriends after their improprieties have been revealed.
In Jersey Shore JWoww hits The Situation, and Sammi punches Ronnie in the face.
Prue (albeit accidentally) using her powers to nearly strangle her ex with his own tie is Played for Laughs.
Due to a misunderstanding, Prue walks off in a huff and stops Andy from chasing after her by telekinetically moving a desert cart in front of him. He trips over it and could have easily broken his neck, but the narrative sides with Prue for being the injured party.
Prue also discovers one of her boyfriends has a twin brother he's been lying about. When she finds out, she slaps him. Admittedly light and playfully, but then she slaps the twin with visible force "for thinking you wouldn't get slapped". Again, this is presented as empowering.
Phoebe, on being reunited with her demon ex-boyfriend Cole, gives him an unprovoked punch to the face for returning. Possibly hand-waved with Cole being stronger than a normal human, but unlikely to be played straight with the genders reversed.
Phoebe and Cole's Meet Cute is prompted when he approaches her from behind in the college courtyard, taps her on the shoulder, and she goes to give him a roundhouse kick. It's presented as cute that her first instinct is to kick someone from behind.
Invoked by the Source, when he tries to get Paige to use her powers for evil; convincing her to give a supposedly abusive father a heart attack, and that she'd only be getting rid of an evildoer. The others however do their best to stop her, as it would be counted as an act of evil.
Paige rescues her office lech from a magical mob of admirers, and he regains consciousness with her magically enlarged breasts right in his face. When he says "ooh", Paige punches him in the head to knock him out. Phoebe does reprimand her for it, but it's still played for comedy because he was an Asshole Victim.
Phoebe casually remarks "Are you kidding me? How many times has Piper blown up Leo?" Piper tries to blow him up out of anger for something he didn't do, but couldn't due to the magic disappearing. This is especially odd, as the first time she does it, it's a Kick the Dog and a sign that she's turning into a Fury. She only does it when under an evil spell but it's treated as a mild annoyance (although in one episode when she thinks he's really dead and comes out of the enchantment, she's horrified). Paige however gets in on this by testing a vanquishing spell she's intended for Cole on Leo. He's pissed but it's still shown as a light-hearted moment.
Another Cole example. In "Happily Ever After", Phoebe is wrongfully convinced that he's responsible for the demon of the week coming after them. When Paige is temporarily dead, Phoebe punches him with visible force, although she is forced to make a reluctant apology later. The double standard is highlighted when Cole under the Siren's spell tries to strangle Phoebe being presented as horrific, and him actually hitting her being shown as a Moral Event Horizon.
In "Battle of the Hexes" a spell causes the girls in Billie's class to attack the boys. When Phoebe and Piper talk about it, they make light of the situation.
In Tyler Perry's House of Payne, an episode about domestic abuse includes a man being stomped on and electrocuted by his wife and Delante being beaten up by two women he's dating.
Played straight in the TV miniseries Betty Broderick. Betty spends several years stalking, harassing, and terrorizing her Jerkass ex-husband and his new wife before shooting them dead. Betty is the one made out to be the victim/heroine in the ensuing murder trial.
The Cosby Show: Cliff forgets something about his wedding and Claire "puts him in a headlock."
In Home and Away local cop Angelo Rosetta is assaulted by a woman twice while trying to solve crimes and arrest suspects. He tries to charge one of them with assaulting a police officer, but his fellow officers let her go because they liked her more than him.
In Robin Hood, Marian punches Robin in the stomach so hard that he doubles over in pain because she's frustrated. This is played for laughs.
A sketch mocks Tiger Woods' alleged abuse by his wife.
In a sketch from the early eighties, a husband arrives home late from a party to an angry wife who attacks him and then leaves with their children. When the husband's friend comes over, he teases him for it. When the husband tries to report the beating, the policeman doesn't believe him. The wife comes back, tries coaxing him into opening the door, busts through the door and attacks him.
The King of Queens: Carrie teaches a girlfriend of Spence to be verbally abusive to him.
In "Van, Go" Doug butts heads with a rude waitress. The manager reprimands the waitress, then she threatens to "gut (him) like a deer" when he leaves. The waitress beats him up off-screen and this is played for laughs.
Carrie pushes Doug down the stairs when he prioritizes his grilled cheese over getting his suit fitted. Instead of apologizing, she blames him and says he didn't do what she told him to do.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: In "It Had to be You", Will goes on a date with Jazz' sister who at first seems rather sweet. After one date, she starts speaking to him in a rude tone and becomes controlling. She chooses his wardrobe and buys him a beeper to keep track of him 24/7. When Will tells his aunt and uncle about this, they shrug it off. Carlton tells her off, which makes her act demure and polite. This has major Unfortunate Implications: Will is told that when a girl acts abusively as she did, it's his job to show her who the man is in the relationship.
Game of Thrones: The Season 6 character Lady Crane is portrayed as a good person who is being wrongly targeted by the Faceless Men, but she eventually reveals to an injured Arya that her medical experience comes from all the times she's stabbed her lovers out of jealousy. She says this as casually as talking about the weather, as if stabbing her boyfriends was justified because they were men, and the narrative certainly doesn't disagree with her, and neither does Arya. It made a handful of viewers wonder if she really was deserving of death, and if Arya's decision to spare her was a mistake.
Memphis Beat subverts this when one of the male police officers is verbally abused by his wife over the phone. Later he comes in with odd bandages. Three other officers - Whitehead, Dwight, and their boss - ask him what happened, and he says, "My wife stabbed me" as though it were no big deal. Whitehead tells him he should stand up to his wife. Dwight tells the officer he shouldn't let his wife push him around. It's later implied she's being booked for assault when it shows them standing together in the booking line.
Played straight in Hawthorne when Christina's Bratty Teenage Daughter Camille comes in with a black eye, Christina believes her boyfriend Marcus hit her and she chases Marcus through the ER throwing things at him. Later she finds out Camille attacked him after mistakenly believing Marcus was cheating on her, and in the process tripped and hit her face on a defibrillator. Christina responds by saying, "What were you thinking, laying your hands on a man? Do you know what he could have done to you?"
In season 6 of Hardcore Pawn, a man tries to sell his wife's ring to buy parts for his motorcycle. The wife punches him several times and Ashley finds the situation funny. In a later episode, a woman is frustrated because her bracelet is not worth as much as she thought and berates her man. He shoves her out of the way to leave and Ashley is shocked.
In the fourth episode, Ted dates a girl who studies Krav Maga. She beats him up in a crowded restaurant. When he tells his friends and children, what happened, they laugh because he 'got beat up by a girl'. In the 21st episode of season 5, Ted reveals that the crowd in the restaurant cheered her on.
In an episode where Ted dates someone Robin doesn't like, she punches him in the throat.
Played straight in the Season 6 finale "Aliyah", when Ziva, upset that Tony shot her boyfriend to death in self-defense, pins Tony to the ground and points her gun at him. This is brushed over and Ziva is treated as the one who was wronged.
After Jackie slaps the Ninth Doctor, Rose laughs off it off and remarks "you're so gay".
Donna slaps the Tenth Doctor twice in her debut episode when he invades her personal space.
In "Kill the Moon", Clara threatens to hit the Doctor so hard he'll have to regenerate.
According to "The God Complex", Amy hit Rory hard enough to knock him to the floor. At one point she asks, "Are you just agreeing with me because you're afraid of me?" and he says, "Yes."
Played for dark laughs on 30 Rock when it's implied Pete's wife hit him:
Liz: Pete, you and Paula fight a lot, right?
Pete: [Nervous, holding his lip] No, I-I walked into a door. I'm so clumsy.
Zigzagged in Frasier. Maris' emotional and psychological abuse of Niles is Played for Laughs early on, but only to the audience. Fraiser and Martin frequently comment that it's not acceptable and that he has to stand up to her.
The Muppet Show: Miss Piggy is a quintessential example of this trope, frequently sending co-stars Kermit, Gonzo, and others flying across the room with her trademark karate chops. That said, it should be noted that much (though not all) of the instances where she does this are in response to Kermit or someone else saying something insensitive or mean-spirited to her, usually about her weight or being a pig (i.e. Kermit's dig about her living in a pig sty and rolling around in the mud).
Played straight in the U.S. version of Shameless. After Steve smuggles Frank over the border, Fiona punches him in the face. It's treated as justified.
Played for Laughs when during their wedding reception, Terry learns that Steve cheated on her then she punches him in the face during their first dance.
Played Straight with Tyrone Dobbs' abuse at the hands of his fiancee Kirsty Soames, which briefly resulted in Tyrone being mistaken as the abuser by the other residents of the street and being taken into custody, before Kirsty finally came clean.
Subverted with Geoff Metcalfe's coercive abuse of his wife Yaseen Nazir. At a point when Geoff's abuse appears to be escalating to violence, Yasmeen defends herself by breaking a wine bottle over his head before stabbing him in the neck with its broken remains. The police are called, cue Yasmeen's arrest and detainment, and Geoff warping what really happened to present Yas as a violent alcoholic, which many have no choice but to believe. Yasmeen's name was eventually cleared.
Discussed in British puppet adult comedy series Mongrels. The satirical song "Just a Little Tap on the Nose" is about how female-on-male abuse is downplayed and rationalized.
The Office: The cantankerous relationship between Jan and Michael would probably never happen if the roles were reversed.
Played straight when Mark is picked on by a female bully. Frank is disgusted that Mark is "letting" a girl push him around, and he can't believe Carol isn't embarrassed by her son's behavior. Subverted when Al threatens the bully, and when Mark's family supports him when he stands up for himself.
Played for Laughs in "Crossfire", Kira and Odo are reading over the criminal activity reports when they get to a domestic assault case. Kira asks why the husband stays with his wife when she beats him so often. Later that same night they are arrested for "Public Lewdness."
In the pilot episode of Saving Grace, Grace has sex with a married colleague. The next time she sees him, he has a black eye from his wife. When she asks him about it, he says it's "Nothing I didn't deserve."
Exploited in season nine of Grey's Anatomy. Jo and Jason get into an argument and she hits him. Jason hits her in self-defense, giving her a black eye. He ends up in the ER after cracking his head open on the floor. Jason wants to press charges, but Alex threatens him, saying he'll ruin his reputation by telling people he hit his girlfriend. He states when a woman hits you, you need to take it or walk away, and that "all people are going to hear is that you hit her."
Played for laughs in the Mexican sitcom El Chavo del ocho. Doña Florinda unfairly blames Don Ramón for everything that happens with her overprotected son Quico and slaps Don Ramón in every episode. She spanks him to the point of inflicting injuries. However Don Ramón never calls the police.
It becomes a Discussed Trope in one episode. El Chavo claims men must not hurt women, but Doña Florinda says it only applies if women earn their respect, and not to take advantage of that to hurt men without fear of retaliation.
Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger shows Rin hitting and yelling at Souji when he upsets her or doesn't realize her crush on him. He's shown to find girls "scary" and is visibly alarmed when he has a dream of going on a date with her. Her actions are played for laughs and presented as somewhat justified since Souji doesn't acknowledge that he is supposed to fall for her.
Susan breaks into another man's car to spy on someone. When he notices this, she traps his head in the window and makes him apologize for all the women he wronged. A police officer stops her, but Susan gets no punishment.
Susan attacks Paul and is stopped by Beth. Beth confronts her about it and she brushes it off.
In the pilot episode, Tom comes home from a business trip to a kid-exhausted Lynette, wanting sex. They realize they don't have a condom and Tom suggests chancing it. Lynette punches his lights out.
Ed Hurley in Twin Peaks worries about what's going to happen if his wife (who has Super-Strength) finds out about his affair with another woman: "If Nadine found out about me and Norma, I'd be playing harp for the Heavenly All Stars!" The sheriff laughs and treats it as a joke.
Discussed in Mexican Soap OperaLa Rosa de Gudalupe, in an episode dealing with the physical and psychological abuse that a teenage boy gets from his girlfriend. He says that he couldn't be a victim of violence since All Abusers Are Male.
In one sketch of The Checkout, Played for Laughs when a woman hits her husband after finding out he wasted their money on lint rollers.
Discussed in a 2011 episode of The Talk when they talk about a California man who was castrated by his wife. Co-host Sharon Osbourne is giddy about the situation, and a large part of the audience feeds off that. Most of the female co-hosts join in, but Sarah Gilbert argues it is sexist to laugh when mutilating a woman would not be funny.
As a woman in a male-dominated profession in The '40s, Peggy faces a lot of sexim and takes offense to it. More than once she punches a guy for being rude and derisive (including her Nice GuyLove Interest).
A customer verbally and sexually assaults Peggy's waitress friend. Peggy threatens him with a fork against a vital artery to tip her friend generously and never return to the diner again. The friend is seen smiling about this and it's treated as a badass heroic moment.
Peggy and Jarvis talk to women that Howard Stark has slept with. Every woman slaps Jarvis after their one-night-stand. Peggy intervenes once, only because she wants to look at the attacker's wrist.
Played for Laughs in Becker, Reggie instructs a woman to bully Bob into a relationship. Later, we see her physically forcing Bob on a date, while he is unwilling and crying.
The Mr. Potato Head Show: Queenie Sweet Potato gets away with slapping Mr. Potato Head often. Downplayed in that he never seems to find the slaps very painful.
Short Ribbs in a supermarket sketch that spoofs the "Don't Squeeze the Charmin" commercials, Patty Maloney slaps Billy Barty when he gets attracted to her strawberry print dress.
Subverted in the pilot episode of The Rookie. Rookie Officer John Nolan and his Training Officer, Talia Bishop, respond to a domestic disturbance call. They find a Huge Guy, Tiny Girl couple. When Nolan talks to the guy, he hints that his wife is the abuser, but is vague enough that Nolan doesn’t bring it up to Bishop. Later that day, they get another call from the same address, and they find that the wife has murdered the husband. Bishop calls Nolan out for not telling her about the guy hinting that his wife was abusive.
Discussed in The Jeremy Kyle Show when a guest tells a story of his abusive girlfriend violently assaulting him before locking him in their apartment, forcing him to jump from a third storey window and suffer additional injuries from the fall, the audience - a sizeable portion of which were female, though there were several men present as well - proceeds to laugh at him for several seconds. Jeremy proceeds to call them out on their double standards.
Played Straight in Yellowstone. Jamie is frequently physically and emotionally abused by his sister, Beth, and it is never called out. She even purposely pushes him towards suicide in the second season. She also calls him a coward for never hitting back, but when he does hit back once, she says that no real man would hit a woman. Their father, John, fully accepts this and only ever intervenes when Jamie defends himself... by kicking him off the ranch and threatening to kill him. Even when Beth's reason for hating Jamie is revealed, the fact that the show acts like she is entitled to abuse Jamie is a large point of criticism.
Unfortunate Implications: Will is told that when a girl acts abusively as she did, it's his job to show her who the man is in the relationship.