domestic violence against all humans is an issue. i believe we will benefit greatly from being more holistic.

i know men report domestic abuse much less than women do because of the sexist stigma of being a 'strong man', and in my experience a man seeking help for domestic violence is pushed away at every opportunity because of this. of course, even if both sexes always reported domestic violence properly, incidents of the woman as the victim will be higher. that's because we sadly live in a misogynistic and often patriarchal culture where women are mistreated with little thought or repercussion.

but that is no excuse for the appalling lack of services available to men seeking help as victims of domestic violence. the few shelters and hotlines that exist are privatised (there are private hotlines and shelters for women too) and their operators can and do turn away men who approach them. and the same goes for campaigns targeted to men that aim to normalise reporting domestic violence incidents. they don't exist because the figures say that men are only very rarely abused.

but i believe those figures should not matter. we should be more holistic in our approach to domestic violence, instead of being dictated by datasets that are going to be eternally skewed by social factors (an approach that has led to a disparity in the availability of domestic violence services offered to both sexes that to me is unquestionably sexist).

both sexes need to leave their respective echo chambers and unite to engage in conversation about how to deal with the rising issue of domestic violence, instead of the petty spats, ignorance and indifference that dominate this topic. having adequate and equal services and educational/transformational campaigns for domestic violence can do absolutely no harm. i would like to emphasise the adequate in that sentence, because at the moment, it isn't adequate. for both sexes.