i will be going on an unhinged rant later about how dutch does not like women beyond how they make him appear and that annabelle was murdered before dutch could inevitably get bored of her and now uses her death as a justification for his ongoing fued against colm, when the real reason is he just wants revenge for the sake of coming out victorious.
Also find it interesting how his violence towards women seems to parallel his mental decline.
Like the first time we hear about him hurting a woman is the Heidi McCourt incident, something which seems to set off the gang's bad luck but also shatters John's perspective of Dutch, to the point even the Strange Man is haunting him about it years later. Arthur only hears about and claims it's "not like Dutch" and Micah apparently had to encourage it but we dunno how much he really needed.
Putting aside the skeevyness with Molly and Mary Beth, the next time we see him be rough with a woman is Catherine Braithwait, but we as the player are kind of with Dutch there as she just kidnapped a child...He still seems to relish unleashing his rage on her, again was it fuelled by just his own petty revenge or any actual care for Jack?
Then there's the old woman in Guarma, and similar to Heidi McCourt, this shakes Arthur up and gets him wondering if Dutch is okay. Yes she pulled a knife but the woman was frail as a twig and he didn't need to go nearly that far just to incapacitate her. Once again Dutch almost seems to enjoy it and then tries to gaslight his way out of what he did.
And then there's Molly - Dutch never gets to lay a hand on her but only because Susan gets to her first and Arthur tries to talk him back like he knows what he's about to do. It's almost like Arthur is trying to save Dutch from himself as much as Molly. But had Susan not shot, then Dutch would have killed her, 100%.
He's then vocally abusive towards Susan in camp and shows zero reaction when this woman he's known for decades, who helped raise his kids and held the camp together, is gunned down in front of him - and he still sticks with her killer. He doesn't care anymore for the safety of the women in camp as Arthur keeps trying to make him, and it's interesting that he associates Arthur's concern about the women as "sounding like Hosea". Almost as if that had been Hosea's main concern and Dutch just went along with it.
Interesting detail with Sadie is how gentle he is with her at first, and seems to coddle her like the other women at camp with not being too keen at sending her on missions with the boys, but then when times get more desperate and she proves how capable she is, he doesn't have much qualms in bringing her along but also doesn't seem to value her much as a person? She's the one who comes up with the idea to rescue John but it's Arthur who gets all the blame. She's as vocal in doubting Dutch as the boys are but he doesn't round on her. He just seems to view her as another gun at that point.
Quick side mention of Tilly who was essentially his daughter as much as Arthur and John were sons - but he ignores her after the robbery and Abigail is taken, I don't think he cared if she followed on or disappeared at that point because Micah was helping to encourage this mindset of "they're just girls" and therefore useless. Interestingly Micah talks nearly all the game about not needing women around camp unless for sex and seems to get his way by the end. Had Tilly stuck with Dutch and Micah I don't think it would have ended pretty for her at all.
Cut to twelve years later and Dutch is full blown crazy- and he kills an innocent woman purely to spite John, as if coming full circle from what happened in Blackwater the first time with Heidi. He's also now open in his hatred for Abigail, calling her all sorts of slurs, whereas he maintain some facade of respect for his daughter-in-law but that slipped the more John doubted him and in a very typical sexist fashion; Dutch blames her for "poisoning his son against him".
In short; Dutch tried to have this image of a modern gentleman and a progressive who gave women roles in camp and acted as a father figure to some but as the mask slipped he became as much of a violent misogynist as can be.
