As Wives Too Beat Husbands: Another Look at the Socio-Legal Narratives of Domestic Violence

Abstract

In the conventional human rights, socio-legal and related discourse of domestic violence, focus has preponderantly been on men as the perpetrators, with wives or women as victims. This may be due to some factors. One is the entrenched empathy and solidarity with women as the “weaker sex” and usual victims. In such context, instances of women’s acts of domestic violence tend to be perceived readily as “exceptional cases” where the women perpetrators “must have been pushed to the wall”. Another possible factor is the mind-set to readily assume that wife-on-husband violence is “unlikely” or “improbable”, based on gender differences in size and strength, coupled with the man being the domineering personality and “head” in conventional spousal heterosexual relationships. A third factor may be that women can readily and comfortably speak out about their experiences as victims of domestic violence with expectations of societal interventions. Conversely, due to ego or masculine dignity male victims of domestic violence may keep silent, thus leaving, mainly, the voices of women resonating as victims in the pertinent narratives. However, studies, on a notable scale, are showing the reality of males being victims of domestic violence perpetrated by females. This paper seeks to address the foregoing and related issues in the context of human rights and similar aspects. Among the issues to be engaged will the factors contributory to the muffling of the voices of male victims and need for a pragmatic balance in the protection of women and men against domestic violence.