I thought it was really interesting in class how we distinguished
the rape of women from any other form of sexual in counter or any rape like the
rape of men. As we mentioned, it might be because the purity of the girl is
violated and taken away from her, or perhaps it’s because it’s using the fact
that women are most of the time weaker than men. But I thought it was
interesting how lacking the rape of men coverage in research or even on the
media and I understand it’s probably because those incidents don’t occur as
much as the attacks against women. I stumbled upon an interesting article when
searching on psych-info about the statistics and psychological damage that rape
victims go through. The article is called “Male victims of rape and sexual
abuse” and I wish I could upload the PDF here somewhere but I’m going to
highlight a few of the information pieces I found interesting in it and if any of ya'll want it I can email it to you so you can read them.
In relation to male victims and posttraumatic disorders the article
mentioned that a large sample suffer a great deal of psychological trauma which
directly causes posttraumatic stress disorder with symptoms of severe insomnia,
panic attacks, and a startled reaction. Furthermore, male victims of rape have
a huge problem of forming close relationships with adult men so the men were
found to have evidence of a fear of men and situational fears concerning men.
One really interesting piece of information I found was that the rape victims
became homophobic because many survivors feel like their attackers are
homosexuals so they have extreme negative feelings towards this issue. Moreover,
in the study they had conducted 22 of the men had attempted suicide, 13 men
reported suicidal thoughts and one man in the study committed suicide, thus,
suicide is also a strong outcome to sexual abuse and rape.
How do you feel like the rape of men is perceived socially? Are we as
judgmental of male rape victims as we are of female victims? Why do you guys
feel like these attacks are rarely highlighted in the media?
Coxell, A. W., & King, M. B. (2010). Male victims of rape and
sexual abuse. Sexual And Relationship Therapy, 25(4), 380-391.
I feel like male-on-male rape is something almost completely ignored by society and the media, and an issue that is almost swept under the rug to the point of where we never hear about it. Outside of prison culture, where rape appears to be just an accepted fact of existence, I feel like the rape of men is demeaning in a different sense that it is to women. While sometimes women in rape are seen as completely defense and unable to defend themselves, just by being a woman, the male is thought to be able to defend himself, and if he is raped, is subsequently thought to be less of a man. I feel like society, as a whole, is not as judgmental of male victims as women, not so much as a sexist bias, but rather simply a lack of exposure.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't even thought about that Matt! I totally missed the fact that many male on male rapes happen in the prison system, it almost seems like it's a jungle habitat and the more "feminine", "submissive", and "weaker" men are the ones who fall victims to those attacks. So in the outside society the bottom of the strength chain is usually the women in society and thus they are the ones targeted, but in the prison system which is completely segregated the weaker men take the positions of the women and fall prey to stronger criminals. But I completely agree with you, it is a lack of exposure more than a sexist bias!
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