Abusers And The Films That Reared Them

A “nice guys” filmography

From being damseled, to oversexed, to silenced, the “fairer sex” has not been treated well in pop culture. Women have always been depicted terribly in film, but the way the men in those films treat women is even worse. It’s a trend that goes back for decades: portraying abusive relationships as romantic.

By carefully staging the plot, writers have continuously found ways to make disgusting behavior seem acceptible, necessary, and even downright heroic. This creative alchemy turns terrible men into “nice guys,” and has deeply personal implications that are all too real.

Abusive men are not raised in a vacuum. They are taught to think that their toxic behavior is beyond critique or question. Let’s take a look at how abuse has been portrayed in media, to uncover how popular conceptions of abuse have evolved over time.

This is the history of abuse in media, and the dangerous men those films produced.

The Hay’s Code Era Brought to You by Baby Face.

Frank Fay was a Vaudeville star for many years. He was a master of ceremonies for Warner Brother’s star-studded revue The Show of Shows, though he eventually fell into obscurity due to his abrasive manner and explicit support of fascism.

Before his rightfully-deserved fall from grace, Fay married a little-known New York actress named Ruby Stevens. She would later be known as Barbara Stanwyck, one of the most vibrant stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Stanwyck was known for playing strong female characters, and, because of that, remains a lesbian icon in some circles to this day (though the identification of her sexuality remains elusive).

She was also the victim of violent domestic abuse at the hands of Frank Fay, an influence she was never quite able to break. Sadly, this abusive relationship was not only indicative of the romantic relationships of the time, but decades into the future as well.

It may surprise some people to know that the way women were portrayed at the beginning of the…