Christopher Anderson explains everything you need to know in order to support men who have been raped by women.
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Recently, actor Shia LaBeouf made headlines after disclosing that a that a patron attending his #IAMSORRY performance art exhibit raped him. Over the past few days, former CNN host Piers Morgan has engaged in a one-man scorched earth campaign attacking actor Shia LaBeouf.
Shia LaBeouf's claim to have been 'raped' is truly pathetic & demeans real rape victims. Grow up, you silly little man.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 28, 2014
Morgan has also gone after many of the persons coming to Shia’s defense.
@thelindywest I don't dislike LaBeouf – I dislike him crying rape when it clearly wasn't. Your article is ridiculous.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 2, 2014
But for all of Piers’ bluster, there is one thing that he has yet to do. Piers has yet to publicly engage with or interview an expert on the topic of male sexual victimization. Since he remains unwilling to speak with experts, I wanted to share the following information. This way, perhaps some people might come away from this whole mess knowing at least something truthful about of the realities of being a male rape victim in today’s society.
- According to research 86% of male survivors of female offenders are not believed. This is in spite of the fact that stories of male victimization are being more and more disclosed.
- It is possible for a woman to rape a man. Research on sexual predation by females is not as common as that on male perpetrators, but it is out there. As a matter of fact 2 separate studies – from 1998 and 2014 – have reported that 43% of surveyed males report having a coercive sexual experience, many of these leading to nonconsensual intercourse (i.e. rape). Another study from 2003 found that “Almost 1 in 10 respondents (9.3%) reported having used aggressive strategies to coerce a man into sexual activities.” Further, it is possible for a man to maintain an erection, even have an orgasm involuntarily. The orgasmic response is regulated autonomically. In other words, a man does not have conscious control over whether or not he can have or maintain an erection. Therefore we cannot presume that an erection is a sign of consent to sexual activity. In fact an orgasm may actually feel physically pleasurable while the victim is feeling psychological terror. There are even ways for perpetrator is to artificially cause a male victim to get and maintain an erection.
- Dissociation, or “freezing” is a common response to being the victim of a violent attack. Humans have 3 basic responses to extreme stress – fight, flight, or freeze. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that freezing is as common, and may in fact be a more likely response in some people than fighting or fleeing. A better of the neurobiological effects of trauma can help us see why people act they ways that they do in traumatic and abusive situations. As Rebecca Ruiz wrote last year for Slate:
In the past decade, neurobiology has evolved to explain why victims respond in ways that make it seem like they could be lying, even when they’re not…. Victims can also experience tonic immobility—a sensation of being frozen in place—or a dissociative state. These types of withdrawal result from extreme fear yet often make it appear as if the victim did not resist the assault.
- Sexual violence is among the least reported crimes in the United States. Over 60% of rapes and other violent sexual violence went unreported from 2006 to 2010 according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Also, “the percentage of unreported violent crime victimizations that were not reported because the victim believed the police would not or could not do anything to help doubled from 10% in 1994 to 20% in 2010”? I would add that the response and criticisms that many, if not most, male victims of sexual abuse receive only adds to a sense of distrust that any disclosures on their part will be dismissed by others.
- Every person has a right to not be abused. Every person has a right not to be raped. We do not need to affirm those rights verbally, or fight off an attacker in order for them to be in effect. To paraphrase a famous quote – A person’s right to swing a whip ends where another’s legs begin.
According to the latest data from the CDC, more than 25,000,000 males in the US have been or will be victims of some form of sexual violence. Regardless of what may or may not have actually been done to Shia in that moment, there is only one salient fact. As Lindy West wrote in the Guardian, “literally the only thing that matters here is that a woman chose to sexually violate him.”
Instead of attacking Shia, we should be acknowledging the fact that what he did will likely empower more survivors, both male and female, to come forward. For all of the attacks that Shia has received, what has been heartening to see is the number of commentators who, regardless of their personal feelings about Shia and/or his art, acknowledge that what he experienced was a violation, and that Shia is not deserving of these uninformed attacks by Piers and others.
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AP Photo
I don’t automatically believe him because he’s famous and male, and I don’t automatically DISbelieve him because he famous and male. I don’t know why people can’t understand the idea of taking accusations seriously AND presuming innocence until proven guilty. Am I the only one who refuses to decide conclusively one way or the other?
Thanks for your comment. There is one significant problem with the way you are looking at this. If you wait until there is conclusive proof a person was attacked before you allow them compassion and support for being hurt you are adding an undue burden onto someone who has already been harmed. I see no reason why compassion needs to be withheld until the party or parties responsible for harming a person is necessary. We don’t ask it when there is a disaster like a chemical spill – we rush to the aid of those who have been hurt without… Read more »
Was this one of those performance art shows where the audience is allowed to do whatever they want to the artist and they don’t resist? If so, that is one of the dumbest choices an “artist” can make. Relying on the morality of whoever shows up the the event and allowing them to do whatever they want – I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often.
John,
It was not, according to Shia’s collaborators statements:
“Nowhere did we state that people could do whatever they wanted to Shia during #IAMSORRY. As soon as we were aware of the incident starting to occur, we put a stop to it and ensured that the woman left.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/01/artist-collaborators-who-worked-with-shia-labeouf-on-iamsorry-confirm-he-was-raped/
After reading more about this the cynic in me says this is a marketing ploy for both Morgan and Labeouf. I hope I’m wrong.
This is a very odd story. I don’t think many disagree that not responding due to fear, shock, or freezing up in some way is a fair criticism, but what if his motivation not to respond was because he wanted to keep the “integrity” of his “art” intact? Could be where Pierce may be going with his criticism, though I am speculating…
I’m a graduate student studying counseling and I am really interested in PTSD and how we respond to stress. Do you have the source for the additional “freeze” response? I’d like to learn more about that.
Great article. So incredible, Morgan’s comments. Unbelievable.
Hi Nick,
Thanks for your comment.
There is a lot of information out that on the FFF formula (and actually there are some people who would include Fright and Faint as well). Here is one article that I just found on a google search
“Based on recent literature, freeze, flight, fight, fright, faint provides a more complete description of the human acute stress response sequence than current descriptions”
Bracha, H. Stefan. “Freeze, flight, fight, fright, faint: Adaptationist perspectives on the acute stress response spectrum.” CNS spectrums 9.9 (2004): 679-685.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15337864
Thank you for this. As a [female] rape survivor the comments I’ve seen in response to Shia LaBeouf saying he was raped have been extremely triggering – I’ve been told multiple times that I’ve ‘cried rape’ and that my experience of rape (I didn’t say no or fight him off me, and I didn’t report it) demeans real rape victims. As someone who saw the pain in a male friend who was raped by a woman, as well as the ridiculous way it was handled by local media and police compared to how they’d have approached it if the victim… Read more »
Actually he is worse. He resorts to shaming people which is bad enough but he does it without knowing the facts.
Ugh. Lindy West didn’t defend him. She was trying to score fem points with her ideology.
Oh my goodness. I face-palmed so hard I saw stars.
Well, Piers Morgan was wrong or a fool every other time I’ve heard him open his mouth up to this point, so at least you have that going for you.
Thank you for this.