A Marked Man: Female-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Abuse

Abstract

Concepts of intimate partner abuse and violence are shifting, complex, situational and multifaceted. Whilst women's narratives of abuse have provided much needed insights into the subjective experience of intimate partner abuse, men's accounts of female perpetrated abuse have been slower to emerge, generating much controversy and hostility. This paper seeks to add to a small, but developing qualitative literature on male victims' accounts of intimate abuse and violence. Drawing on case study data, the article charts some of the salient themes emerging from a series of in-depth interviews and the personal diary of an abused heterosexual male victim. It explores the congruence with elements of other accounts of intimate abuse and violence. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ways in which male victims of intimate abuse might be understood within contemporary frameworks of masculinity.