I'd just like to start off with the fact that no woman deserves to be treated with abuse and No should be respected as No. secondly verbal and emotional abuse is as serious and sometimes more serious, as their scars and damage is easily hidden from those around them which can lead to them not getting the help they need as early as possible.

Any action between a man an a woman is consensual, if its not then its rape , assault, or any other charges that the police can bring to bare. This can never be understated or over said, nor should it be tolerated, by Dom or Sub.
This said the other point is the victim must be believed, or they don't have a chance to survive.

Too those of you that have under gone abuse, hugs an my heart goes out to you.

My mother went out with a guy, he broke her collar bone an put stitches in her head on another occasion. The funny thing was, he was one of the nicest people you could meet, from what I saw he was good to mum an my little brother. when mum showed me her stitches, I didn't want to believe her. My brother saw it but was too young and had a hearing problem that affected his speech and was hard to understand. My sister and I lived with my Dad. It also went on for 5 years untill she picked him up from his hotel room to take him to work (he had lost his license dui driving under the influence) and found him in bed with another woman. Funny how that will do it every time, Grins.