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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/16233
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Reality is complicated. Usually, in the case of domestic violence, many factors lead to it. For example, both partners have specific fears, both show certain behavior, and all this slowly builds up to the moment when one partner hits the other.

Literature is not law. In law, one party needs to be found guilty. In literature, you can show the complexity of reality, and that there is not clear distinction between good and evil.

You could show, in your writing, how the culture, personality, and the history of the relationship of the couple in question lead to the "bad thing". You could show, how the perpetrator feels before, while and after he does it. You could show how the victim feels prior to, during and after the event.

In reality, no two of these events will be the same. In some cases, the woman will have provoked the man to the point where he lost control. In other cases, the man will have had no reason for violence other than his own wish to dominate the woman or his fear of her independence. And there are many other cases (images of masculinity, childhood abuse of the perpetrator or victim, sadistic impulses, etc.).

I don't know your characters and what kind of story you want to tell, but there really is no need that you interpret your story for your readers. If you are not writing a propaganda piece for feminism or antifeminism, you can simply show things as they are (or would be, if they were real). Literature, if it is good, should lead people to question their prejudices, and both the belief that men must be able to control their aggression no matter what a woman throws at them as well as the belief that women "ask for it" are both stereotypes that your story could expose as simplistic.

Original score: 6