Last week, we wrote about how men struggle with sexual abuse. Guys get abused too, but our culture doesn’t fully acknowledge that. We laugh off the stories we hear of possible abuse, making it difficult for guys to come to terms with something that’s hard enough to deal with as it is.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The folks over at Blisstree have put together a list of the most famous men who’ve been sexually abused. We can’t say it enough, but this really does happen. Maybe, by seeing that it’s happened to some powerful, famous, and successful men, it’ll help others who’ve been abused. And maybe it’ll help us all realize that we probably know more than one guy who’s a victim of sexual assault.
The most famous man on the list—and one of the most famous men, ever—is James Dean. Although he never admitted to being abused, Elizabeth Taylor recounted a story in an interview with the Daily Beast:
I loved Jimmy. I’m going to tell you something, but it’s off the record until I die. OK? When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister. I think that haunted him the rest of his life. In fact, I know it did. We talked about it a lot. During Giant we’d stay up nights and talk and talk, and that was one of the things he confessed to me.
Then there’s Massachusetts senator Scott Brown, who revealed an incident from his childhood in his memoir, Against All Odds. According to the Boston Globe:
Brown’s most striking disclosure is that he was fondled by a camp counselor when he was 10 years old, during the summer after fourth grade, at a religious camp in Cape Cod. He does not disclose the name of the camp, which he described as Christian. He says he will never forget the perpetrator.
Head over to BlissTree and check out the rest of their list.
—Photo nmonroe88/Photobucket
I think your online mag is great, and in particular the article encouraging men to speak out about childhood sexual abuse. I can’t say I’m too crazy about portraying James Dean as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse based on the claim of one person who “revealed” this after his death. To my knowledge no one has come forward to substantiate Ms Taylor’s claim. Just my own take on the whole thing. There are so many more survivors who have spoken out publicly that could have been used in this article: Laverneus Coles, Carlos Santana, Tyler Perry, and Antwone Fisher… Read more »
I don’t doubt Elizabeth Taylor’s account. What reason would she have to lie about a person who is deceased? Elizabeth Taylor also was a very compassionate woman and not prone to lying. James Dean clearly had some demons and oftentimes, that is an indication of some type of childhood abuse, sexual or physical. Let’s not minimize the fact that many men have been victiimized sexually too. Women are not the only victims of this atrocious crime. Pedophiles are men and women and assault girls and boys equally or almost equally.
Well, yes. However, this is a feminist-leaning blog. You cannot expect anyone here to consider sexual violence against boys and men a legitimate issue worth discussing on its own merits. To be honest, considering the feminist bias on this blog, it is rather surprising to see these kinds of articles at all. That said, there is a link to 1in6.org, so the information is at least available to those who want to look at it.
Way to anomolise sexual abuse of men.
Where did he do that? I will grant you that the post does not go into any detail about sexual violence against males, but it does acknowledge that men are victims of sexual violence (although it is tagged under “male privilege” and I am not sure how being raped is a privilege for male victims).