If you have been keeping up with the news, many of you would have noticed that there seems to have recently been a surge in the number of celebrity domestic violence cases; not just in Ghana but all over the world.

From Mr & Mrs John Paintsil to Johnny Depp and Amber Heard; domestic violence is nothing new in the celeb world. But I have a major problem with something, not just with the issue of domestic violence in the world but the issue of domestic violence full stop. Alas, here is where my issue lies- that man always seems to get the blame and the woman is automatically deemed ‘the victim.’

As a hot-tempered and argumentative woman myself, I KNOW that sometimes women can provoke men. We push their buttons, utter the most scathing words (whether deservedly or undeservedly), we just push and push and push whilst well aware that what we’re doing is eliciting a reaction from them.

So then why cry when you get that reaction you KNEW you were going to get by the things that were coming out of your mouth, by the getting all up in the man’s face, by the jabbing your finger in his chest and waving yours arms around?

I know that there are genuine victims of domestic violence (both male and female) out there in the world, and I know that not all victims of domestic violence arouse the rage of their abusers or deserve it in any way at all.

However, I also know that there are many ‘so-called victims’ of domestic violence who intentionally set out to chafe the anger of their partners, safe within the comfort of the age old adage of “I’m a woman so he can’t touch me”.

We’re all human, we’re all prone to outbursts of rage- NOBODY has the right to intentionally provoke anybody to commit an act of violence.

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