After our discussion in class on Tuesday, as well as a
previous blog post by Jess, I thought it was super important to look at this
post as well. Like the previous blog post about female survivors of sexual assault,
quoting the people that assaulted them, this in turn looks at males that are
survivors of sexual assault and what their rapist said to them.
In our society, it sounds silly but I think we forget that
men are victims of sexual assault just like women are. The sad thing is, our
society places such a strong emphasis on men having to be masculine and strong
and powerful. Societal norms pretty much say that men CAN’T and DON’T get raped
or sexually assaulted. That’s why it’s so scary; we don’t know the exact
statistics of how frequently men are sexually assaulted. It’s more than likely
much higher than we assume.
This reminded me of an argument my class and I had back in
my freshman year of high school…a bunch of girls (and even guys) were saying
that men just cannot get raped. They kept saying how men always want it and
that it is a guy’s fault if his body is turned on during sex even though his
mind may be screaming for help. I think we always forget that men can be the
victims just as frequently as girls can be. If a
male cries sexual assault, his masculinity is sadly threatened, as well as his
sexuality a lot of the time.
All in all, I really think that our society needs to be educated on not just female abuse but male abuse as well. People make assumptions through stereotypes that men should be powerful and be able to defend themselves and crave sex at all times, but it simply isn't true.
All in all, I really think that our society needs to be educated on not just female abuse but male abuse as well. People make assumptions through stereotypes that men should be powerful and be able to defend themselves and crave sex at all times, but it simply isn't true.
Kristin this is so true. Rape is an act of violence against another person. It doesn't matter if the person is male or female. It really upsets me when people assume that men/boys cannot/will never be victims of sexual assault. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
ReplyDeleteI am guilty of forgetting that sexual assault on men is also an issue. I wanted to share this blog on Facebook, but I think too many people will make jokes about it, and I don't know if I can handle all of that ignorance right now..
ReplyDeleteAlong with this is the issue of domestic violence against men! I honestly don't know how much it happens, but I'm betting it happens so much more than gets talked about. It's the same idea of shame and the threat to their masculinity that probably keeps it from being reported. Thanks for posting, Kirstin.
ReplyDeleteThis is so incredibly powerful.
ReplyDelete