Third year Katie Hunter and a group of other Geography students have been started a campaign for social justice as part of their course.
They have decided to campaign against the stigma surrounding male domestic abuse.
They chose to investigate a concept called ‘hegemonic masculinity’ which focuses on men as the dominant gender and the belief that if they become victims, they are perceived as ‘feminine’ and this comes with negative connotations.
Katie Hunter told The Courier that herself and her team felt like male and gender-neutral issues were being ignored thus they wanted to tackle this.
Katie said: “We definitely believe that there is a stigma that if a man is a victim of domestic violence.
If a woman fell victim to domestic abuse, the amount of support she would get would be far greater than any emotional support a man would get.
The group said: “Both genders deserve respect when they are victims of domestic abuse”.
An article published last week in The Independent reported that cases of male domestic violence have doubled in Scotland over the past 10 years.
Subsequently, the Scottish Government announced £3 million of funding over the next three years for the charity ASSIST which helps victims.
Nevertheless, some students think that alongside monetary investment into charities there should be more studies into the domestic abuse of males worldwide.
Mechanical Engineering student Jonathan Craigmile said: “If a man told his mates about domestic abuse he would probably be mocked, it just seems to be not a manly thing to do.
“Maybe if there were more opportunities for males to come forward before things got too bad, the statistics from Scotland would not be as high as they are”
As part of the campaign, the students involved will start a petition on campus for a support group and aim to start up an anonymous hotline/chat forum for victims of domestic abuse.
Furthermore, they have just set up a twitter account for the campaign @manpowerNCL.
Look out for Katie and her fellow campaigners on campus in the coming weeks.
