Freeman (1979) says that abuse can be physical, emotional, sexual, and economical, and can be done by one individual to another. Much of feminist research delves into how women are subjected to physical, sexual, or economic abuse by male partners (Kelly, 1990) However, there has been little research into male victims of abuse, especially abuse by a female partner (Mutahi, 2017) George (2002) argues that traditionally, men are only seen as perpetrators and not victims, while women are seen as victims, and never perpetrators. Men and boys can be victims of abuse and are often more likely to be victims than women and girls.

Historically, despite common misconceptions, wife-beating, in many societies was frowned upon and has been illegal in societies since the 1600s (Pleck, 1979), Wife beaters in 1800s England could be jailed and even publicly flogged, however, battered husbands were unprotected by the law and could even be publicly humiliated in a festival known as Charivari up until the 19th century, interestingly enough, men who beat their wives could also be humiliated during Charivari (George, 2002) Women would sometimes beat their husbands with wooden ladles and beaten husbands were mocked and called ‘Skimmingtons’, a derogatory name (George, 2002) In modern times, 33.5% of married men in Kenya have been victims of physical domestic violence (Kigaya, 2021) According to Gathogo (2015), in the Central region of Kenya alone, by 2012 there had been 300,000 cases of domestic violence against men. A man known as Simon Mwangi was slashed several times across the face by his wife, who was arrested for attempted murder, but was later acquitted, while Joseph Nderitu was stabbed multiple times by his wife, whom he later forgave, and settled matters with her outside of court (Kalekye, 2018)

But domestic violence against men is not restricted to Kenya, in the United States of America, a quarter of men experience physical violence from an intimate partner (NCADV, 2015) In a study done on almost half a million participants, female partners were either as physically violent or more physically violent than male partners (Fiebert, 2014) In most Arab countries (Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, Sudan, and Algeria) men were more likely to be victims of domestic violence than women (Bouhlila, 2019)

Furthermore, men who were victims of physical abuse saw it as less serious and were less likely to report it than female victims (O’campo et al., 2017) According to Gathogo (2015) 70% of battered men did not report their abuse to authorities. Many men who are victims of abuse struggle with their masculine role, and are less likely to be taken seriously by society and the police alike (MacDonald, 2016) According to McCarrick et al. (2016), abused men can go through the double trauma of being abused their partners, than being ignored or unbelieved by police officers.

The common view is that women and girls suffer under patriarchy, and violence towards women is normalized and men use violence to dominate and subordinate women (Dutton, 1994) However, an experiment done by Felson and Feld (2009) showed that people of both genders, across age, level of education, and political ideology, were more likely to condemn male violence against women as opposed to female violence against men. Police are more likely to arrest a man beating his wife than a woman beating her husband (Felson & Pare, 2005) Despite there being several shelters for female victims of domestic violence, there are no shelters for male victims of domestic violence in Kenya (Wanambisi, 2015) Men who committed violence against women or girls were given harsher sentences than those who had male victims (Beaulieu & Messner, 1999)

However, punishing males more harshly than females doesn’t start in adulthood. According to Lytton and Romney (1991), boys are physically punished more severely than girls. A report by Human Rights Watch (2008) reveals that boys are much more likely to be beaten in schools than girls, making up 78.3% of those punished with beatings, and when girls are beaten, they are punished much more gently, and even with smaller instruments than boys.

Men also go through sexual violence. 24.6% of married men in Kenya have been victims of sexual domestic violence (being forced to have sex with, or being raped by their wives) (Kigaya, 2021) It’s a misconception that only women go through wartime rape. According to Stemple (2011), 80% of the 5,000 male concentration camp detainees in Sarajevo had been sexually abused, along with 76% of male political prisoners in El Salvador. Despite this, only 3% of NGOs that work with wartime victims of rape offer services to male victims (DelZotto & Jones, 2002) Despite the misconception that women experience rape at much higher rates than men, Stemple and Meyer (2014) found that (unincarcerated) men and women in the US were victmized at similar rates. Almost 300,000 more men than women were victims of rape in the US, in a single year (Smith et al., 2018) However, this does not include incarcerated men, of which there are 900,000 cases of prison rape annually (Stemple & Meyer, 2014), making men more likely to be raped than women in the US. In Kenya, less than 17% of male victims of sexual violence reported their sexual assault (Wanambisi, 2015) In Afghanistan, there is a phenomenon known as ‘Bacha Bazi’ where young boys can be raped and taken as sex slaves or prostitutes by adult men (Jones, 2015) According to a study done by Andersson et al. (2004) boys in South Africa were more likely to be sexually abused than girls.

Men also go through emotional abuse and gender based violence. Almost half of all men in the United States of America experience psychological or emotional abuse, such as stalking or verbal abuse, by their intimate partner (NCADV, 2015) According to Wanambisi (2015), men are more likely to be victims of gender based violence in Kenya, with 48.6 percent of men surveyed being victims of gender based violence, compared to 37.7 percent of women.

Despite the theory that men control women and girls using physical, sexual, and emotional abuse due to the patriarchy (Dutton, 1994) wife-beating has been frowned upon in several societies since the 1600s (Pleck, 1979), while domestic violence against men in Kenya is rife (Kigaya, 2021; Gathogo, 2015). Despite this, there are several shelters for female victims and none for male victims (Wanambisi, 2015) and men were more likely to be victims of domestic violence in the US (Fiebert, 2014) and several Arab countries (Bouhlila, 2019), and violence against women is seen as worst than violence against men (Felson and Feld, 2009; Felson & Pare, 2005; Beaulieu & Messner, 1999) Boys are also more likely to be abused by their parents (Lytton & Romney, 1991) and at school (Human Rights Watch, 2008). Men also experience sexual violence by intimate partners (Kigaya, 2021) and during war (Stemple, 2011) and in prison (Stemple & Meyer, 2014) and are more likely than women to be victims of rape in the USA (Smith et al., 2018) and boys in South Africa were more likely to be victims of rape than girls (Andersson et al., 2004) almost half of all men in the USA report being victims of emotional abuse (NCADV, 2015) and more men than women are victims of gender based violence in Kenya (Wanambisi, 2015)

References

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