Husband Battering Essay -- essays research papers

Husband Battering: A Serious Problem Billboards, radio, and TVads across the country proclaim that â€Å"every fifteen seconds a women is beatenby a man.† Violence against women is clearly a problem of national importance,but has anyone ever asked how often men are beaten by women? The unfortunatefact is that men are the victims of domestic violence at least as often aswomen are. While the very idea of men being beaten by their wives runs contraryto many of our deeply ingrained beliefs about men and women, female violenceagainst men is a well-documented phenomenon almost completely ignored by boththe media and society. The first reaction uponhearing about the topic of battered men, for many people, is that of incredulity.Battered husbands are almost a topic for jokes - such as the cartoon image of awoman chasing her husband with a rolling pin. One researcher noted that wiveswere the perpetrators in 73% of the depiction of domestic violence in newspapercomics (Gelles 1974). Battered husbands have historically been eitherignored or subjected to ridicule and abuse. In 18th-century France, a batteredhusband "was made to wear an outlandish outfit and ride backwards aroundthe village on a donkey" (Langley & Levy 1977). Even those of us wholike to consider ourselves liberated and open-minded often have a difficulttime even imagining that husband battering could take place. Although feminismhas opened many of our eyes about the existence of domestic violence, and newspaperreports often include incidents of abuse of wives, the abuse of husbands is ararely discussed phenomenon. One reason researchers andothers had not chosen to investigate husband battering is because it wasthought to be a fairly rare occurrence. Police reports seemed to bear this out,with in some cases a ratio of 12 to 14.5 female victims to every one malevictim. But another reason is that because women were seen as weaker and morehelpless than men due to sex roles, and men on the other hand were seen as moresturdy and self-reliant, the study of abused husbands seemed relativelyunimportant (Steinmetz 1978). In 1974, a study was done which compared male andfemale domestic violence. In that study, it was found that 47% of husbands hadused physical violence on their wives, and 33% of wives had used violence ontheir husbands (Gelles 1974). Half of the respondents in... ...involves denying thatwomen are victims. Women’s groups that help battered women could also helpbattered men, while men’s groups that counsel abusive men could make theirexpertise available to violent women as well. Continuing to portrayspousal violence solely as a women’s issue is not only wrong – it’s alsocounterproductive. And encouraging such unnecessary fragmentation anddivisiveness will ultimately do more harm than good. No one has, or shouldhave, a control on pain and suffering. But until society as a whole confrontsit’s deeply embedded stereotypes and recognizes all the victims of domesticviolence, we will never be able to solve the problem. Domestic violence is aneither a male or a female issue – it’s simply a human issue. References Farrell, W. (1986). Why men are the way they are.New York: McGraw-Hill. Gelles, R. (1974). The violent home: a study ofphysical aggression between husbands and wives. Beverly Hills: Sage. Langley, R., Levy, R. (1977). Wife beating: thesilent crisis. New York: Pocket Books. Mercy, J., Saltzman, L. (1989, May) â€Å"Fatal violenceamong spouses in the United States, 1976-85† American Journal of Public Health,79, 595-599.