During the 2009 Golden Globes there was a tribute to Steven Spielberg. He said, “Spielberg didn’t direct Jaws.” I said “What?!” He said, “He may have produced it, but he didn’t direct it.”

Pause. “He didn’t direct The Color Purple, either.”

—Dirks

Aftermath: I moved out.

He dragged our 6 year old daughter across the room by her arm then smacked her in the face for crying about it.

—Cecilia

Aftermath: I divorced the bastard. Now he brings women to his kids’ football games and gives up his time with them to go out on his dates.

Me: Divorced, over 40. He looked OK online, supposedly adult; some email conversations. He asked late one night to watch a DVD, The Last Waltz. Bored, hadn’t seen it; I said sure. He lives in father’s basement (bad); dirty sofa, ten remotes (very bad). He started the movie and two minutes later, lunged. He had a large erection; seemed he was working on it himself beforehand. I said no thanks. He argued, I got up, he hit me with classic sour grapes “You aren’t even that good-looking anyway.”

–veronica

Aftermath: 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds. I drove home laughing my head off and told all my friends. I mean, attempted date rape when you’re over 40 and a mother of a teen? Man, there is a time to be over this!!

For my boyfriend’s birthday I had gone to a lot of trouble and told him we needed to leave the house by 6:30 or the night’s events would be derailed. At 6:30,  I was sitting on the couch, ready to go. He came out and whined that his hair wasn’t working and said he needed to re-wash it. When he re-washed it two more times (for a total of four hair washings and another hour delay), I knew we were done.

–Elizabeth

Aftermath: All I could see was how high maintenance he was and we broke up a few months later.

We were camping on Martha’s Vineyard before the season started with very little to do. One day we decided to have a beer in town. Some local guys were hanging out in the bar and she started flirting the moment we sat down. This was typical behavior for her and I hated it. After she suggested we invite them over, I figured enough was enough. I told her I was walking and she told me she was staying. So I left and sat outside. She came out shortly, totally freaked out that I left her in a dangerous situation.

–Tom

Aftermath: She stormed off toward the ferry to leave me on the island with our camping equipment. On the way, she realized she had a tick behind her ear and needed me to remove it. This moment of vulnerability and the resulting gratitude sucked me into another couple of months.