Recently I was joking around with a friend (who happens to be a man) about what would happen if I seriously offended a group of men. He responded with “You better watch it, they might get their sisters on you!”. As a strong woman who likes to stand up for herself, I asked why they would not just take care of it themselves. His answer was simple:

“We all know there's a major difference.”

He is right, but he shouldn't be. I'm not at all claiming any assault or abuse is okay because it is most definitely not. However, if we truly wanted both men and women to be seen as equals, how can we be more outraged over a man beating a woman than a woman beating another woman? It is the same situation, yet we view it as different. Why?

Now let me paint a different picture for you of a couple who to the outside world seems to be happily married.

One spouse has begun wearing long sleeve shirts in July and big sunglasses to cover their face. They stopped going out for drinks with their friends and if on the rare occasion they do, the other spouse blows up their phone with harassing text messages and phone calls. They want to file for a divorce but are afraid of what their spouse might do to them. The other spouse seems to have it all, the perfect spouse, the perfect job, the perfect life. Unfortunately, sometimes they lose their temper when things aren't going their way. To take out their rage, they physically and emotionally abuse their spouse.

I'd be willing to bet that most, if not all, of you who just read that description would say the first spouse is the wife and the second is the husband. Furthermore, if I told you it was the other way around, you would have trouble believing me.

Luckily this description was not made in specific reference to any couple I know. Sadly, though, every 37.8 seconds in America, a man is the victim of domestic abuse as 1 in 10 men are. Furthermore, most of those men abused will never report the abuse because they do not want to be seen as “unmanly” or weak. Even more tragically, many of the men who do report it will not be believed and in a “he said, she said” case as so many often are, far too many people inside and outside of law enforcement side with the woman instead of the man due to the difficulty of believing a man could be abused by a woman resulting in their aggressor/abuser being left to potentially cause more harm to them. You might be asking yourself, “Well, why can’t they just leave?” The simple fact of the matter is, men, do not have anywhere near the amount of resources women do when it comes to domestic abuse and getting away from it. In England, there are 7,500 shelters for victims of domestic abuse who are women compared to the mere 60 shelters for victims who are men. Not only that but remember, there is a stigma behind men being abused and they do not want to appear as weak or unmanly. We have grown far too comfortable with seeing men as the aggressors and the women as the victims. Although women are beginning to stand up more and more declaring that they do not want to be treated of as always the victim, they still do not stop seeing men as the aggressors.

So, why is no one marching, chanting, and carrying signs about this blatant example of inequality? Why when we talk about equality are we only discussing the problems women face, continually placing blame for inequality on men when they too are affected by inequalities of their own?

Why is the feminist movement, the one that claims it is “for the equality of everyone”, ignoring the inequalities their male counterparts face?

If we want equality, we must be willing to accept complete and total equality.

I am ready for that. The question is, are the feminists?

I feel it is important to note that there is no sub category of "Men Issues" for me to put this in which is why I am listing it under "Women's Issues". Make of this what you will.