Trigger Warning: This post deals with issues of domestic violence and may be triggering for survivors of abuse.
This video is shocking, but perhaps not surprising.
It shows two examples of intimate partner violence, being carried out in broad daylight.
In the first example, a man is shown abusing a woman. In the second example, a woman is shown abusing a man.
There’s a startling difference in the reactions from members of the public.
Perhaps what is most troubling about this video, is the laughing and smirking from bystanders as they watch a woman abusing a man.
It is deeply depressing that we live in a world where domestic violence is so shockingly common. That men and women alike can suffer at the hands of their partners – who can also be men and women alike.
The ManKind initiative, who made the above video, are doing really good work in the UK. They receive over 1,500 calls from men who are in distress every year, and provide unquestioning support – a completely necessary service, when so many male survivors of domestic violence often report being faced with disbelief and even mockery when they try notifying the authorities about their abuse.
But despite the fact that ManKind are doing good work, this ad has made some people really uncomfortable. This is partly due to the dialogue that surrounds the debate about domestic violence – and how some advocates for male DV survivors, are sometimes seem to be attacking advocates for female DV survivors.
ManKind believe that “men, in particular, suffer” when they are experiencing domestic violence, due to “the lack of recognition and awareness by society and often the lack of local services available to support them”.