Masculinity And Rape Essay

Improved Essays
When you hear the words sexual abuse and rape, what pops into your head? An innocent, defenseless, woman or creepy looking man? While that version of events is the majority of cases, it is not all. Especially in my friend’s situation; my friend, a man, was sexually coerced by a women and was affected heavily. Men who have experienced any type of unconsented sexual act are negatively affected no matter their sexuality or gender of the perpetrator. However, due to the beliefs that men cannot be victims of sexual acts by the sex they are attracted to, men are not affected psychologically or physically from unconsented sex, and that erection signifies consent. Many men do not seek the help they need after an unconsented sexual act because of the …show more content…
This means that if a man is “sexually coerced” (persuaded or pressured into doing a sexual act) that deep down he must have really wanted it. The same situation would be looked at differently if it was a woman, instead of man, receiving these tactics. (Smith) Ronald found that men were sympathetic for women and harsher on men in a similar case of sexual assaults. They also gave less blame to women perpetrators than men. (Smith) Is this because men are expected to be an unrelenting force with a strong un-bending will? Would this mean that any man who is sexually coerced in societies’ eyes cannot be seen as a victim but as a willing …show more content…
Feeling as if admitting it would make them less of a man. Thankfully for my friend he was not too scared. Eventually he was able to talk to our school counselor about it and was able to work things out. Unlike the estimated 7% of men who do not. (Javaid)
Why, then do people still not understand that men may not always want to have sex? Knowing that an erection does not mean a man is sexually aroused should help show that men are not consenting silently. Women have also reported releasing vaginal fluids during sexual assault.(Judson) Having problems with intimacy and self-esteem are similar effects of sexual abuse to women also.(Tewskbury) When women are assaulted by other women or men they receive the same amount of empathy whether they were attracted to either.(Davies) Men should be given the same amount of treatment.
If the public was to become more aware of these facts, many men would not be scared to get the help they needed. It is hard to change myth accepted ideas but not impossible. If everyone did their part in questioning logic and doing research, society would be just a little more open minded and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Currently the United States has one of the highest rape rate among countries, every 107 seconds, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted with the number of victims being 293,000 each year (Kahn). With many of the attacks being unreported and unrecognized sexual assault is said to be a silent- violent epidemic. The causes and reasoning behind sexual assault are entrenched into our society. Richardson and Shields make a point saying students are not the victims and “rape culture” but the victims of a damaged institution that contributes to risks of sexual assault ( Richardson and Shields 27). Women are staggeringly more likely to be the victim of sexual assault, while men are almost always are the perpetrators. Less than 5% of victims are male, and when men are sexually assaulted the perpetrator is usually male (Abbey 118). America’s stereotypical gender roles encourage men to be dominate and think that when a girl says “no” she is saying “convince me” leading them to be forceful (Abbey 120). In many cases men perceive women 's reject as a sign to try harder, and start sexual relations. Few women initiate sexual relations, Abbey states because gender roles expect women to set the limits on sexual acts and many times held liable…

    • 1685 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sodomy Law In Texas

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The conversations of men being victims of sexual violence is rising, but not nearly enough. This topic still has much to cover and society still keeps it as a secret. Regardless of the stigma there are programs that support men through this traumatic and difficult…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The article, “Men, Masculinities, and Feminism” explains that men can be privileged in society but still lose privilege because of certain characteristics that oppress them. The authors, Christopher J. Greig and Barbara A. Pollard (2017) elaborate this explaining that even though men have power based on their gender, their privilege is challenged and ranked within their sex. This can be seen by a social hierarchy that oppresses those who aren’t considered to be as masculine as other Men. Men are pressured by other men to perform actions that are masculine, such as displaying dominance by being aggressive, to secure a higher status. Throughout their life, they are constantly fighting to prove their masculine standing in society so that they…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Mental Health Of Men Essay

    • 1731 Words
    • 7 Pages

    the idea of mental disorders and health has been feminized and men’s mental health has largely…

    • 1731 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sexual Assault Stereotypes

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages

    According to figure 9.1 in Doerner’s Victimology (2014), 27% of sexual assaults occur by a stranger, which means someone you know commits a whopping 73% of the sexual assaults. That includes relatives, friends, or even someone you have had an intimate relationship with (p. 230). The assaults often occur over faulty assumptions. For instance, a woman consents to sex hours ago. Later after drinking, one still cannot assume permission is place to have sex. Particularly when the victim is intoxicated, acting on severely impaired judgement! Unfortunately that is not the case. If people would only use discretion, be in more touch with their moral compass, better decision-making would result. I would argue that it won’t stop all sexual assaults but it would likely have a positive impact in reducing the number significantly. The consequences of these selfish acts are horrid, demeaning and unimaginable. They often leave victims with lifetime scars and emotional issues surrounding trust and intimacy. Only when people start changing the way they think and act, real strides can be made. Education is needed to help society better understand these…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As previously mentioned, disclosure is the first step toward healing after sexual assault. Unfortunately, for many victims, it is also the most difficult step to take. There are numerous reasons victims hesitate to disclose. These include fear of navigating the justice system, worry about retribution or further attacks by the assailant, shame, self-blame, and confusion about the assault (Baker et al., 2012). Research further indicates that many victims do not disclose incidents of sexual assault due to concerns about stigmatisation, blame and other negative responses from those to whom they disclose (Baker et al., 2012).…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sexual Trauma Paper

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I wished there was some way to eliminate all instances of rape from the world with the snap of a finger. Despite this not being possible, I have come to realize that one of the most beneficial things we can do for those who have experienced some form of sexual trauma is to make their situation as conducive to recovery as possible following the incident. If law enforcement officers, lawmakers, and society as a whole were to increase their understanding of rape and improve their attitudes toward the victims, it could have a ripple effect that would increase the rate of reporting of such heinous crimes, therefore allowing more victims to receive the help they need. This could also reduce the rates of PTSD in survivors of rape and sexual abuse. I believe that instigating more research about individuals’ attitudes toward rape victims could be a way to help the victims in a way that can be much more easily measured. As I read the article discussing sexual assault, I came to realize how difficult it was to conduct studies on the subject. It is a sensitive, complex subject and any phenomena surrounding it are exceptionally difficult to measure. This is why I think that investigating and correcting society’s attitudes towards victims of sexual assault is a way to improve their situation in a way that is easier to approach and…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Men Hate Crimes Essay

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Victims of all creeds, race, or sex face a wide variety of emotional pain due to their victimization (Karmen, 2015). This is no different for men who are abused, physically and mentally, by the women in their lives. One of the main issues with this kind of category/crime is that many men are reluctant to report such occurrences of abuse due to feelings of being emasculated. Men do not want to admit to being weak, especially when it is a woman abusing them, and therefore these crimes are severely underreported. This leads to further false public perception that this type of crime is not worthy of study or examination. This is of course ridiculous and therefore women abusing men crime should be looked at for what it is: wrong. Males are more likely to commit suicide than females, suffer from depression at a much higher rate, and this type of crime could be a contributing factor to these…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sexual Assault Issue

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Although many people in the United States believe that sexual assault is not a major problem within our social atmosphere, the reality is that sexual assault is a serious social and public health issue today. Furthermore, sexual victimization is commonly associated with a wide range of short and long-term physiological consequences. According to national surveys, one in six women will experience attempted or completed rape at some time throughout their life. Despite the resources available to victims such as rape kits, RAINN, crisis support, and counseling, our judicial system continually places blame on the victims since they brought this unfortunate consequence upon themselves. Due to this, in the United States alone only 5-50% of sexual…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Campus Rape Research Paper

    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages

    However, the process is rough for men too. Men who get sexually assaulted tend to be too proud to say anything. Because society tends to think to think that men can’t get raped by women, or heterosexual assumptions make it difficult for people to remember that most people who get raped are raped by other men. But that isn’t the case, sometimes it’s your boss, or someone you know. And if you’re getting sexually harassed by your boss and you can’t do anything about it because you don’t want to lose your job, that’s a form of rape culture. There aren’t very many opposing arguments to rape culture and not everyone knows it exists; society just seems to turn their heads away and accept it. There’s a lot of research behind rape culture with women, because statistics say they are sexually assaulted more than men. “When victims have been sexually assaulted, they experience “Han” it’s the suffering and testimonies of women” (Cited 2011). The victims struggle with who they are afterwards there’s a lot of self-blame and shame. Mentally, this experience can kill someone inside; the article talks about spiritual death, because physically you may be fine without a scratch on you. But this experience can cause you to lose grip…

    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Many people in the media and scientific organizations will look to take blame off of men and place it on biology instead. In Michael Kimmel’s book Guyland, he references writers specifically asserting “Roiphe, Young, and Paglia all argue that boys will be boys, and that to constrain male sexuality is to do a disservice to young men” (Kimmel, CP 377). While biology plays a role in sexuality, attributing rape and other forms of sexual assault to biology is simply taking the blame off of the perpetrators and putting on the victim. Institutions like the media privilege men by taking the blame from them and putting it on some uncontrollable genetic factor. We are taking the focus off of the roots of the issue, and putting our attention on the victim and their role in sexual violence. Male privilege is what makes this issue “violence against women” as opposed to “men’s violence against women”, because the prior takes focus off of the vast majority of perpetrators thus completely bypassing the core issues of gender and socially applauded…

    • 1457 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rape In Prisons

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Rape causes various mental health problems which could harm inmates and the public in the future. For instance, some men become violent and angry after being raped: “James Gilligan describing a theory of violence, argues that shame is the primary underlying cause of the…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sexual violence can cause different levels of psychological symptoms. A broader term that people use is PTSD, which indicates the mental dysfunction that victims develop for responding to tragic experiences. Jaxcoy, Zoellner and Foa (2002) research that “most rape victims exhibit PTSD symptoms immediately after an assault and these symptoms persist for years” (p. 892). PTSD can become a lifetime mental disorder, and it can bring a lot of stress to victims. Research by Kaitlin A. Chivers-Wilson (2006) states that “94% of women experienced PTSD symptoms during the first two weeks after an assault” (as cited in “National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”, 2005). If there is no intervention or counseling provided…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the United States, patterns of socialization exist that encourage men to feel they are expected to gain sexual access from reluctant women (Littleton, 2011). They are more likely to labeled as the decision maker and initiator in heterosexual relationships (Glass, 2002). Sex-role stereotypes encompass expected behaviors of both genders and through sexual scripts, by guiding expectations of how men and women should interact with each other as strangers (Check & Malamuth, 1983) . Even though stranger-rape seems to be the least condemned type of rape scenario, men are still often excused for being sexually aggressive while women are blamed for certain actions they took (BenDavid & Schneider,…

    • 1744 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When american culture thinks of rape, women are immediately the victims that come to one's mind. We’ve painted a picture that says, women are initially the one gender that can be raped, and if we were to think a man could get raped by a women. It would be absolutely ridiculous to think a women could overpower a man. We have adapted to live in a civilization that romantics about masculinity. Unfortunately in the process we’ve turned a blind eye to smallest anticipation that a man can be raped by a women as well. Male rape should not be funny joke to laugh about, it should be a comfortable subject we can speak about without falling to a misleading hole of myths and in order to do this we must first diminish these mere myths.…

    • 1509 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays