On Monday night I was asked by a friend, rather gleefully, to visit TMZ.com and watch a video showing American rapper and businessman Sean Carter aka Jay Z getting violently attacked in an elevator by his sister in law Solange Knowles, the young sister of Beyonce, his wife.

Despite being held back by a bodyguard, she rained kicks on his head with her stiletto-heeled feet and then viciously spat in his face while he tried to protect himself.

Instead of condemning the attack, the vast majority of commentators took to asking themselves what he did or said to warrant such a beating and nary a word about how she criminally assaulted him. Now compare this to the Chris Brown-Rihanna assault.

No one in their right mind, correctly in my opinion, sought to justify his attack.  So, why are we doing that now?

This is no laughing matter. There are many men out there who are victims of domestic violence and the attitude that ‘no woman can beat a man’ is one based on fallacy.

A fear of ridicule is what stops a lot of men from reporting domestic violence. What we must realise is that violence isn’t the domain of one sex. All victims must be shown the same support and empathy.

The writer is a New Times journalist pursuing a post-graduate degree in China.

Twitter: @sannykigali