Abuse Against Men

Abuse exists in many forms, from verbal to physical and everywhere in between. It occurs among boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, parents and children, adults and minors. The type that I recently witnessed was the type that I don’t feel gets much “high profile” attention, domestic violence against men.
 
I didn’t witness this personally, per say. While indulging in one of my many guilty pleasure shows, Teen Mom on MTV, one of the couples got into a heated argument that millions of viewers had a chance to see. In a nutshell the couple is in a constant rollercoaster relationship. One minute they’re in love and ready for marriage, the next they can’t stand the site of each other. The woman more than the man seems extremely unsatisfied with the relationship. In one of their many heated arguments, he stops by the house to pick up his things, she’s upset with him, begins to verbally abuse him, threatens to hit him and then it happens- a solid, forceful punch in the face. He does and says nothing to instigate it, but she continues pushing, continues calling him names with a few more hits and an attempt to shove him down the stairs and it’s finally over. He leaves. (A minor side note, last season she also choked and slapped him for talking about her father.)
 
It was inappropriate and unfair and made me think. If this situation had occurred in the reverse, and it was the man that put his hands on the woman, if it was him who punched her in the face and tried pushing her down the stairs, wouldn’t he be facing some serious consequences. Same network, similar situation where a female was punched in the face by a man at a bar (on Jersey Shore) had a very different reaction to it. The clip itself could not even be aired any longer due to its “disturbing content,” it was blacked out. So why weren’t the attacks on Teen Mom?
 
Finding specific statistics on domestic violence against men wasn’t easy. I’m actually still looking deeper into it myself. I did find a few articles that stated similar studies. On policelink.com some of those observations included a 32-nation study by the University of New Hampshire which found female students initiate partner violence as often as male students. A University of Florida study found women are likelier than men to “stalk, attack and abuse” their partner. Another survey done by the California State University noted 30% of 1,000 women surveyed admitted they assaulted a male partner. The article goes on to discuss several other aspects of domestic violence against men.
 
I’d like to find more on the issue, just as easily as if I was looking up cases and statistics for battered women. Abuse against another person, no matter the type, no matter their age or their gender is never a positive thing. I’m a woman and in recent years I’ve been surprised by how strangely different society treats the issue of abuse when it occurs in a role-reversal of woman against men. Like the incidents with the MTV programs I watched; with the sexual “abuse” of female teachers who initiated sexual relationships with their 13-year-old students. The consequences and societies reaction to their severity just appears off balance to me. I didn’t bring up this topic to fight for or against female rights or male rights, I just feel like ANY type of domestic violence and abuse should be reprimanded fairly, censored fairly and never taken lightly.
 
Not that I would like to be seeing either of these next scenarios on a daily basis, but if watching Snooki from Jersey Shore get punched in the face was too unsettling for viewers to witness in re-runs, why is it acceptable for us to keep watching Amber beat up on Gary without the same sensitivity?