Dr Liz Bates, Dept of Psychology, University of Cumbria has given some amazing insights into her research and studies around male domestic abuse.
In July 2019, Dr Bates gave a really enlightening lecture at U.C.L. discussing male victims and their experiences of domestic abuse; here are some of the things I found worthy of note:
The issues with the current legislation: the definition of domestic violence is gendered and described as a gendered crime, which acts as a "structural barrier". I can understand the nature of the crime being gendered, given that the act of domestic abuse itself is much more reported as committed by men than women, however the very fact that there is a generalisation based on statistics effectively silences that minority audience; which is impacting so many male victims.
The constant comparison of gender is unnecessary and inefficient: by comparing genders in the situation of domestic abuse, society acts like that is a depending factor on the victim's circumstances. The gender has nothing to do with it, therefore why are we forever comparing genders when every victim is a victim - hence the concept for this very campaign.
Secondary victimisation: some of the legislations and definitions are "placing somebody who is vulnerable and needing help with more barriers" - and this is purely because of gender. This is what gender-specific support does online too, it's making men search further and get in touch with more services/helplines until they can get the same amount of support as women.
When researching the domestic abuse legislation information, it seems that as of 2019/20, the definition is no longer gendered - which is a huge step. However, not many victims are going to go to the legislation/laws for advice; they will search online/contact helplines, which are still gendering the victims. That's what needs to be changed.
Here is the link to Dr Liz Bates' talk:
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