Illustration by Timo Honkasalo

“While feminists have created a wide framework out of the lived experiences of women, the average anecdote from an alleged male victim is instead created to fit into preconceived theories that are then used to construct and organize the events of the account: being that truth is often stranger than fiction, that men so often claim to have been severely beaten with objects—many largely ineffective when it comes to real violence—with direct ties to femininity (hair brushes, stiletto heels, etc.) or to props indicative of domesticity (bowls, rolling pins, picture frames), indicate that these narratives are not very strange at all but are instead rather derivative in their use of semiotics; these tales are most often not a reflection of actual events but a form of genre fiction that should be read as cheap misogynist allegory.”

First Blood: So-Called
Battered Men on the Offensive