if we're going to look at the behavior of many men in Stevie's life over the years, MANY of them meet various definitions of abuse- maybe not necessarily physical but (to me) clearly emotional and psychological abuse (at a minimum things like gaslighting and demeaning her and her work). I would definitely put Joe at the top of that list. I think JD Souther too in a different way-- he was dismissive of her work and demeaning of her opinions on things. I think Henley had streak of that in him too but I think he didn't dump on her songs/career the way others did. I wouldn't at all say it was abusive but just the idea that Jimmy would shove her in the basement (*figuratively) when she was at that time definitely a BIG star has total shades of male privilege and disrespect. I think Paul Fishkin was lovely to her and a good guy and one of the ones she let get away. Perhaps Hernan too. (though was he the one who dumped his fiancé for Stevie? Not so nice... Might have been someone else who did that
). So maybe a bigger issue is for Stevie to have figured out why she lacked the self confidence to assert herself with men in her life, and whether she did so in many cases because she felt that's what she needed to do to move up in her career (also a very #metoo consideration as the system has been rigged that way for a very long time).
Lindsey doesn't suffer fools well-- female OR male. There are plenty of guys who have gotten chewed out by him ; he's a perfectionist who was hard on himself and everyone around him. Clearly he became aware of this a long time ago and addressed it. I mean it's like in a 12 step program-- you recognize whom you've hurt along the way and you apologize to them and make amends. Well it sure feels like LB has tried to do this over and over again to SN......and that seems appropriate....but I don't think anyone has to apologize for having high professional standards and pushing for perfection...and that feels like where they still have a major disconnect because Stevie has been in a position of only hearing compliments for a long time from those around her.