Our society has been historically patriarchical, and along with the oppression of women comes their defense. There are various organizations and services such as battered women’s shelters and counseling that focus on helping women to leave abusive relationships and cope with the consequences of it. Domestic violence against women is a serious problem in the United States, and people continue to fight against it today.
However, domestic violence against men gets overlooked when it comes to relationship abuse. Domestic violence against women gets much more attention and credence, and as much as it deserves that exposure, it can sometimes come at the cost of not dealing with similar problems for men.
Some are dubious about the idea that men can have it as bad as women do sometimes. Others even find it laughable that a man would be unable to stand up to his wife and let himself get pushed around by her. Attitudes like this make it difficult for men to seek help and allow domestic violence against men to go unnoticed and unaddressed.
Culture contributes to the way domestic violence happens and continues. In our society men tend to be more aggressive, which is why domestic violence against women often brings up the image of physical abuse. This kind of abuse is much more visible and potentially easier to address and prove. However, women are more relational, and the abuse that wives subject their husbands to may be more subtle.
Verbal and psychological abuse can damage a person just like physical abuse does, just in ways that arn’t as obvious. Our culture looks down on men who appear weak, so they keep silent and domestic violence against men can continue. But this is not to say that abuse against women is always physical and abuse against men is always psychological. Abuse can come in many forms regardless of who the abuser is.
We are all human regardless of gender, and every person is capable of experiencing pain and inflicting it. Women aren’t just oppressed and men aren’t just the oppressors. Domestic violence against men can happen just like domestic violence against women can. Historically men have had it better than women but this is on a societal level. Society consists of individuals, and not all men are sexist or privileged. Domestic violence is also not necessarily restricted to heterosexual relationships. All men in our society are capable of experiencing domestic violence, and it should be an issue of concern to everybody.