Was reading the readings on child abuse a few days back. Now it's battered women's syndrome. Not as if I'm new to it (learned about it in trauma psych before), but hearing testimonies about it is quite disheartening.
anyway, to cut things short, it's never okay for repeated hittings to happen. it's never okay for the husband to hit the wife. it's not okay for the wife to take the beatings. and it's not the wife's fault when the husband hits the wife.
there's a testimony of this woman who lost her kidneys 'cos her date (not even her husband!) threw her onto the stove in a fit of anger and stomped on her before that. and women usually break their arms in trying to defend themselves from the blows, or break the bones in their ribcage because they were kicked and stepped on.