Who’s the Victim Here? The Role of Gender, Social Norms, and Heteronormativity in the IPV Gender Symmetry Debate

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has historically been perceived, and thus examined and explained, as a violent act perpetrated against women by men. However, self-report surveys indicate that heterosexual and gay males, as well as lesbians, experience IPV at similar rates as heterosexual women. The question of whether IPV victimization is experienced symmetrically, by both women and men, is more difficult to answer than the data would suggest. Many barriers prevent the reporting of IPV such as gender role expectations and heteronormative views of relationships. The Feminist Theory explains IPV as a form of power and control used to reinforce a patriarchal society, which explains a male-dominant or masculine perception of perpetrators. Other theories, such as Johnson’s Typology, suggest that the violence seen in IPV is bilateral in direction—or that both partners act as perpetrators and victims—which may explain gender-symmetry in IPV. To examine the question of gender symmetry in IPV, this chapter will describe the fundamental beliefs underlying the perceptions of relationships, partner and gender-roles, and the social norms that create our perceptions of IPV.