Husband Battering Essay -- essays research papers

Husband Battering A Serious businessBillboards, radio, and TVads across the country proclaim that e precise fifteen seconds a wo custody is beatenby a man. Violence against women is clearly a problem of national importance,but has anyone ever asked how lots men are beaten by women? The unfortunatefact is that men are the victims of municipal fierceness at least as often aswomen are. While the very idea of men being beaten by their wives runs contraryto many of our late ingrained beliefs close to men and women, female violenceagainst men is a well-documented phenomenon approximately completely ignored by boththe media and society.The first reaction uponhearing about the question of battered men, for many people, is that of incredulity.Battered husbands are almost a topic for jokes - much(prenominal) as the cartoon image of awoman chasing her husband with a rolling pin. oneness 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 backward aroundthe village on a donkey" (Langley & Levy 1977). Even those of us wholike to consider ourselves liberated and open-minded often have a difficulttime plane 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. ace 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 just about cases a ratio of 12 to 14.5 female victims to every one malevictim. still another reason is that because women were seen as weaker and more thanhelpl ess than men due to sex roles, and men on the other hand were seen as moresturdy and self-reliant, the mull of abused husbands seemed relativelyunimportant (Steinmetz 1978). In 1974, a study was done which compared male andfemale domestic violence. In that study, it was prepare 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. Womens groups that help battered women could also helpbattered men, age mens groups that counsel abusive men could make theirexpertise gett up to(p) to violent women as well.Continuing to portrayspousal violence solely as a womens issue is not only wrong its alsocounterproductive. And supporting 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 confrontsits deeply embedded stereot ypes 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 its simply a human issue. ReferencesFarrell, 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) mortal violenceamong spouses in the United States, 1976-85 American Journal of Public Health,79, 595-599.