Today daytime talk show host Tyra Banks is doing a special on male victims of domestic violence. Fathers & Families worked with the producers on the show over the summer. I haven’t seen the show and don’t know how much of what we provided made it into the final product. The show airs today, and a preview of it can be found here.
As an aside, readers may notice that I rarely refer to women “beating” men, but instead refer to women “abusing” men. The reason is this–men are stronger than women and have a greater ability to take a hit. Descriptions of women “beating” men reminds one of a man and a woman in a kitchen-turned-boxing ring, and in that environment men have an advantage over women, no questio0n.
But research shows that women compensate by greater use of weapons and the element of surprise. Boiling water being thrown on an unsuspecting man, a wine bottle being smashed over his head by a woman hiding behind the bedroom door, attacks while asleep, etc. are devastating no matter the gender of the victim, and “beating” doesn’t seem to cover it so well.
To learn more about male victims of domestic violence, see the newspaper column Dr. Holstein and I co-authored about the murder of late NFL player Steve McNair–The violence we ignore (Washington Times, Baltimore Sun, 7/16/09).