The sad thing about the song is that when the Belle sang it on stage she did so as a comic song.
She and Sheila made a routine of it:
Belle:                  "Of whiskey I ne'er was a lover"
Sheila (spoken):   "That's a damned lie".
I was appalled when some audiences/singers around the clubs began to object to songs which they regarded as 'sexist' - IMO it showed a basic misunderstanding of the tradition, and of literary culture in general, but in the case of domestic violence, I'm more than happy to make an exception.
Jim Carroll