Sometimes, and somtimes it could be they are responding to superior whining.
Having spent my fair share of living in a trailor park and other unsavory environments, what I've witnessed in these fights (having almost gotten the snot beaten out of me on several occasions for being stupid enough to intrude in these things) is that both parties are pretty stupid. Very often the woman was literally begging the guy to hit her so she could "throw his ass in jail" jumping up in the guy's face and spitting in it. I don't discount other people's experiences, but I don't discount my own either.
One thing I've noticed is that women often don't play fair. They start on the whining, carping, sniping thing and guys don't know how to respond other than to hit it.
Of course this doesn't apply to every case. Case in point. I knew a guy for a year or so before I realized he was hitting his wife. (In fact I was pretty dense about it. I made some remark - really innocent, I had no idea - about a mark on her face to a friend [also a psych] and he looked at me like I was a complete idiot, which I guess I was, and said "Don't you know what's going on?" And I frankly didn't till the second he mentioned it.) I mean, I knew the guy was a prick, I just never thought of that. He was a professional psychologist. She was trained in psychology, but had no practice. These guys never made a scene in public. She was a total babe, too. Smart, good-looking in a classy Julia Roberts in Notting Hill kinda way. No idea why she stayed with him.
Well, you asked.
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