”Du kan ju inte bli slagen av en tjej liksom” – en studie av män som utsatts för våld i nära relationer

Abstract

“You can’t be beaten by a girl, you know” – a study of men who have been subjected to domestic violence This article discusses how men who have been subjected to violence from women in close relationships talk about their experiences and present themselves. Thee article describes how the men’s representations interact with the discourse on domestic violence, which often conveys an image of men as perpetrators and women as victims. The men’s stories, collected through unstructured interviews and analysed using a narrative constructionist perspective, relate to representations of men, women, violence, and victimization. Men as victims of women’s violence is a relatively unexplored area; domestic violence has rather been highlighted by cases where women are victims and men perpetrators. The results of this study show that the men oppose full victimhood and distance themselves from a given victim role, while at the same time they want a victim status and a recognition of their experiences. The men also highlight double victimization by being victims of both women’s violence and society’s way of viewing their experiences as somewhat taboo