Two Sides of a Coin: Rethinking the Ideology of Male Gender Violence Within the Prism of Two Nigerian Plays

Abstract

Gender-based violence has been a problem plaguing humanity even in the biblical times, and whenever gender-related issues are mentioned, what often comes to people’s minds is violence against women. Thus, the concept of violence has undergone some definitional modifications in the advent of the twenty-first century, by breaking away from the cocoon of women as the only victims, to accommodate the narratives of male victims. Rooting from socially constructed inequalities, squabbling between the masculine and feminine genders is on the increase, and avalanches of narratives that try to explicate and establish a better understanding of this phenomenon exist today. Thus, gender studies as a field of inquiry was developed to aid in flattening the perceived superiority/inferiority curve between the male and female folk, in a bid to maximize their potentials in fostering societal development. However, research in this field has been a bit lopsided in the sense that it has always favoured the aspect of “male against female” violence, as opposed to the little or no authorship that the “female against male” violence has received as a result of stereotypes and perception. This growing threat of gender-based violence against men has inspired less consciousness amongst writers globally. Based on the established premise, this research focuses on the latter, employing content analysis methodology as it critically examined the other side of the coin in the works of two notable Nigerian playwrights—Wole Soyinka and Emeka Nwabueze. The study concludes that domestic violence from a male victim’s perspective is perceived to be very insignificant because the victims are often ashamed to report it as a result of socio-cultural factors. It recommends the need for men to always speak out when such crisis occur to enable them to get the desired help.