Man Being A Victim Of Domestic Violence (IPV)

“When in a temper, she often hit me but never on the face. I thought I deserved it because I was withdrawn and a bad husband – that’s what she kept saying. She forced me to have sex to become a good husband for her. I couldn’t leave because that would have meant leaving my children. I tried to tell my mother but what little I told she said, “What are you doing to make her behave that way?” I felt abandoned by everyone except the kids. After several years my wife said she was leaving. Everyone said the breakup was my fault. I never told anyone what really happened.” This story told by David, a victim of domestic abuse, is only one of many others that we may be reluctant to hear. We refuse to believe the stories of a man being a victim of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) because it is understood that women are more likely to be victims, and seemingly the world’s main priority when it comes to domestic violence. However, let us not forget the men who encounter abuse from their female partners but are discouraged to speak out and get help like David.

Throughout life, we have been taught these gender roles in order to fit into our rightful places to operate in the norms of society. In knowing these things, it is quite surprising to find out that women are the offenders of domestic violence as well as men. When we think about domestic violence, our initial thought almost always goes to a man beating his wife because these are the cases that are talked about more and there are more cases of the man versus the woman. We always come to the rescue of the woman but what about the