One of the most used and abused stereotype about victims of doemstic violence is that they are only women. This may be because the term ‘domestic’ in any family is usually associated with the women folk, while the men are stereotyped as the stronger gender.

One might also argue that most of these victims are women, but this cannot be taken as an excuse for sidelining the issues concerning abused men, which are garnering increasing statistics by the day.

It has become the major cause of concern for human rights activists within the progressive countries of Nothern Europe and Noth America, which promote gender equality and upheld female rights. It so happens that the women are showered with just so many rights in these countries, that the man is often suspected as the perpetrator of the crime, especially if it’s against the woman.

What could be the major reason for these things?

The media is the most extensivley used tool for shaping public opinion in most of the progressive countries today. Isn’t it then the responsibility of the media to show both sides of the story to the people? 

Think about it. since the past few years, the media–especially the Television medium–has been inundated with a variety of advertisements on cases of domestic abuse. But how many of them show the woman as the abuser? How many of them actually highlight violence against the man?

The fact that male abuse has not received a lot of media attention itself is a very dangerous thing. It could be put up something like this–for every five females that you are helping through this, you are probably sidelining one man.

Do the math, and you will realize the gravity of the situation.

In this article, author Robert J. Reid, MD, PhD, an associate investigator at the Group
Health Center for
Health Studies brilliantly points out how domestic violence against men is often sidelined, while busting quite a few myths about the same.

One of the few authors who’ve actually highlighted this issue in their works is Philip W. Cook. His book ‘Abused Men-the Hidden Side of Domestic Violence’ acts as a trailblazer in spreading the word about the abused man.