Well as a counterpoint to your story I'd just like to say that my mother was physically abusive to myself, emotionally abusive to my little brother and physically and emotionally abusive to my father. Back then the idea of fathers getting custody of the children was unheard of so to protect my brother and I my dad spent decades in a loveless marriage to an abuser.
I won't repeat the twisted things my mother did and I am not looking for sympathy. But every time society and the media tries to deny the reality of abusive women, or excuse them as "ill", it re-victimizes the people they prey on. The same for father's Day postings about deadbeat dads, abusive dads etc. - as if they were even remotely the norm. 
Heaven forbid that we should have one day a year where we just appreciate all good dads - that's the vast majority of dads.