This paper reviews the social science literature dealing with gender relations in marriage and the issues of wife abuse. It is argued that the old anti-woman biases of the literature have not really diminished under the impact of feminism. The sexist assumptions and victim-blaming focus of the new battery literature are examined through discussions about the woman's role, proposals for problem solution, and the general context in which wife abuse is studied. Suggesting that the literature looks for differences between beaten and unbeaten wives and attributes assault to these differences, four specific analyses of the wife's role are discussed, including the: (1) traditional sex-role socialization approach; (2) provocative wife argument; (3) learned helplessness analysis; and (4) personal resource theory. This review concludes that each of these analysis models encourages a victim-blaming focus for beaten wives. The wife-beating literature is described as an area riddled with misogyny which neither challenges the myth of domestic tranquility nor offers a new perspective on wife abuse. (Author/NRB)