Even a Scorpion Sting Hurts Just as Much: A Sobering Look at Men as Victims of Intimate Partner Abuse and Violence

Abstract

The subject of intimate violence and abuse has piqued the interest of different groups of people, including psychologists, scholars, and human rights activists over the past 45 years. Even though the epidemiological literature has consistently shown that at least one out of every three people who experience intimate partner violence is a male partner, current initiatives have chosen to ignore this fact. Instead, the phenomenon has been described by most of its advocates as a gender-cockeyed social issue, with a man penned in an “offender”position and a woman in that of a “helpless victim”. Consequently, the exploited man and the abusing woman have been overly overlooked in the therapeutic processes, academic research, and legislative domain. This analytical paper, therefore, is an attempt to counter this position by showing how abuse and violence to intimate male partners happen and the milieu that gave rise to the misconceptions which have led to this unfortunate standpoint. Findings demonstrate that intimate male partners from all walks of life and backgrounds experience abuse and violence of some sort, particularly those relating to non-physical, unlike most women. The paper recommends abnegating the current unilateral narrative and rhetoric of domestic abuse and violence.