I have seen this play out. One of the biggest shocks to me when I became a mum was that there are parents who love their kids and will sacrifice anything for their well being, and there are parents who are low functioning and love them but just can’t cope (leads to neglect) , but there are also a whole spectrum of parents who hate their kids and abuse them. Not just physically but emotionally.
I was aware of the ‘dad knocks me around’ stuff from school friends, but what I saw when I started having to interact with other parents shocked me.
Men tend be be physically and sexually abusive in an overt way (although this is also becoming sneakier with the Troon stuff.) but women destroy people.
I have seen women who hate men emasculate their sons. This usually starts with the ‘gender disappointment’ stuff. Seriously go into your nearest parent board and search for it. They want a girl mini me to dress up. These mothers are the ones with the trooned out boys, very often.
But I’ve also seen the awful dynamic where the girl is really pretty and the father may or may not be creeping and the mothers response is to destroy the girl. I’ve seen this a lot more with stepmothers (I have stepmother tales that would turn your hair grey.) I have seen one where the mother bagged and encouraged the girl (who has waist length, blonde, gorgeous hair) to get it all cut off, I’ve seen women tell slim girls they’re fat (and they weren’t.) seen women react with disgust to tomboy daughters.
It’s very disturbing to see. I suspect that women turn a lot of their disgust with themselves onto their daughters, and the cycle perpetuates.
Fathers aren’t exempt - there’s plenty of abuse from that side too. I’m just closer to the women’s group stuff and that has made me horrified too often