Let me begin by stating my intentions in writing this article. In no way am I trying to diminish the struggles women face with domestic violence or in the various other situation they deal with. My purpose here is to generate some kind of communication about the struggles men face. I'm not going to complain about paying for the bill at dinner or trivial things of that nature.
Domestic violence has been a hot topic for awhile. Yeah, it has been, for women maybe. There are countless support groups, understanding through social media, and whole organizations such as “Women Helping Women.” Those are all amazing! I fully support these organizations and think they are really making progress in helping women. But where is the support for men? When I started researching this topic I was appalled at how little it is talked about. It turns out that 40% of the victims of severe, physical domestic violence are men. I don't know about you, but I've never heard groups talk about this statistic, I've never seen an organization dedicated solely around men who are abused or even on social media. Why is that?
Men who have experienced domestic violence have been overlooked or perhaps ignored would be the more accurate word. Why is that? Society has this fixed standard that it holds men to. Men have to be masculine, strong and obsessed with football. Anything less and “you're not a real man.” Or even better you'll get the famous “man up.” I think every single man has heard someone say this to them “man up.” What a joke. Society shapes us from youth to hide pain and not complain and to appear to be strong. We live in a world where men have to conceal what happened in fear of being called pathetic and weak, or even worse, have to fear not being believed. I mean how can a women abuse a man? They must be lying or at least exaggerating. I guess people think that it's just better to ignore it.
Even if you took the time to read this article and believe that men could possibly be victims of domestic violence, do you hold the issue on the same level as women who are abused? Or is there a double standard that somehow it's more important when a women is a victim of domestic violence?
