Trigger warning for discussion of rape.
There’s been a lot of information about the rape of men crossing my desktop lately, so I felt I’d just post them all.
A news article, covering rape somewhat sensitively, discusses how many male survivors are averse to reporting because of the stigma against male survivors.
As more allegations are leveled against Chadima, Anderson said this evolving case highlights myths of sexual assaults involving men.
“It’s not about sex, it’s not about sexuality. It’s about power and exerting power over somebody else,” she said.
Data shows about 60 percent of women don’t report sexual assault to police. For men, that number is even higher, WISC-TV reported…
She said one in seven boys is sexually abused by the time he’s 18. After that, data is hard to come by.
“That has a lot to do with the myths of what it means to be masculine in our culture,” said Anderson. “It has to do with this idea that if you’re a man you don’t let anybody take advantage of you.”
Interesting although occasionally problematic article (trigger warning for explicit description of rape) about the prison-industrial complex and the prevalence of rape within the justice system (hat-tip to Morgan Fractal):
In January, prodded in part by outrage over a series of articles in the New York Review of Books, the Justice Department finally released an estimate of the prevalence of sexual abuse in penitentiaries. The reliance on filed complaints appeared to understate the problem. For 2008, for example, the government had previously tallied 935 confirmed instances of sexual abuse. After asking around, and performing some calculations, the Justice Department came up with a new number: 216,000. That’s 216,000 victims, not instances. These victims are often assaulted multiple times over the course of the year. The Justice Department now seems to be saying that prison rape accounted for the majority of all rapes committed in the US in 2008 [Ed note: this is not actually true– more rapes were committed outside the justice system than within the justice system], likely making the United States the first country in the history of the world to count more rapes for men than for women...
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeAmerica’s prison system is a moral catastrophe. The eerie sense of security that prevails on the streets of lower Manhattan obscures, and depends upon, a system of state-sponsored suffering as vicious and widespread as any in human history. Dismantling the system of American gulags, and holding accountable those responsible for their operation, presents the most urgent humanitarian imperative of our time…
It’s impossible to tell the story of American incarceration without also telling the story of American racism. Unlike most leftwing stories about racism, though, this one isn’t about the South, and it isn’t even really about American conservatism. After slavery and Jim Crow came the Great Migration, urban riots, and the war on drugs. The history of the prison crisis is largely a story about progressive politicians—liberal Republicans and centrist Democrats—supporting “tough on crime” policies to protect their right flank, both for self-preservation and to propel other progressive priorities. The prison crisis was something that we ourselves created, law by law, decision by decision, state by state.
An interesting paper on human rights perspectives on the rape of men. I will discuss it in more detail later in the week, but I felt I might as well point people to it.
Rather, as the international human rights movement moves forward in its attention to gender issues, health and human rights, and sexual rights, both in concert and separately, we must be vigilant in our efforts to address sexual violence inclusively and accurately. Assumptions should no longer be made in human rights advocacy, instruments, and other texts that “gender” pertains only to women. Attention to gender-based violence must include violence to which men are disproportionately vulnerable on account of their sex. Definitions of rape and other forms of sexual abuse must always leave room for male victims. Any gender analysis of sexual violence must tease out the ways in which harmful masculinity norms serve to render certain groups of men (men who are perceived to be gay, weak, small, or effeminate) vulnerable to such violence.
In a world in which, one hopes, compassion is not a finite resource, new concern for one type of victim, in this case, men and boys, need not signify the lessening of concern for women and girls. It is not a zero-sum game. Indeed, the total undoing of women’s sexual subordination must include an accurate understanding of rape and a thorough critique of gender assumptions—and should not and cannot come at the expense of failing to account for other victims.
(Trigger warning on the rest of this post for graphic rape threats) YouTuber The Amazing Atheist threatens to rape a survivor. Normally, I would not give attention to such a vile piece of pond scum, but according to the Pharyngula thread the survivor TAA threatened was, in fact, a man. I find it a sickly amusing proof of the gendering of rape that when a hateful asshole who deserves to be kicked out of the human race hears that someone is a survivor, regardless of the survivor’s gender, they say things like:
I hope you fucking drown in rape semen, you ugly, mean-spirited cow. Actually, I don’t believe you were ever raped! What man would be tasteless enough to stick his dick into a human cesspool like you? Nice gif of a turd going into my mouth. Is that kind of like the way that rapists dick went in your pussy? Or did he use your asshole? Or was it both? Maybe you should think about it really hard for the next few hours. Relive it as much as possible. You know? Try to recall: was it my pussy or my ass?
Paul Elam at A Voice For Men “jokingly” threatens to rape PZ Myers, because he is The Best at men’s rights.
Hopefully, before we are done, MRA’s of differing views will find more common ground, and PZ Myers will be limping to the drug store for some KY Jelly.
Hm. Thanks for posting my vid blue 🙂
And interestingly I had just tweeted about that Male on Male Rape and Humans Rights pdf a few days before this post was published. And also interesting, I published a piece in 2009 about the cambridgefilms documentary on ‘Rape Culture’ that Erica linked to above: http://feministwhore.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/the-origin-of-the-term-rape-culture/
AB: And you took the liberty to become offended when I called your insinuation that I and other aspies were brainwashed bigotry? But you’re right, it’s not quite what you argue. You argue that women with Asperger’s syndrome should stay at home if there was a risk of encountering black men outside, because those men would be offended if you stepped away because close physical proximity is stressful for you. That’s totally different.
Schala, isn’t this the substance of the argument you made? What is incorrect in AB’s rephrasing of it? This is how I read it also.
I think it’s far from OK to pretend that a term invented by feminists mainly in reference to women is attributed to a group of black men just because it sounds more progressive AB, this is definitely a trend… I’ve seen it several times now. Erica, I mentioned NOTES FROM THE FIRST YEAR, published in 1968. There were about a dozen contributors, as I recall… but think whatever you like. You will anyway. IACB is correct in that Barry started a lot of the anti-prostitution movement, and long before she ever got a book contract. She was a co-founder of… Read more »
@Schala:
And you took the liberty to become offended when I called your insinuation that I and other aspies were brainwashed bigotry? But you’re right, it’s not quite what you argue. You argue that women with Asperger’s syndrome should stay at home if there was a risk of encountering black men outside, because those men would be offended if you stepped away because close physical proximity is stressful for you. That’s totally different.
“This is going to sound harsh, but considering that people on the Open Thread are arguing that black men are such a sacred group of people that women with Asperger’s syndrome are obliged to stop having Asperger’s syndrome in their company”
You win the prize for “Most Distorted Argument Ever” 2012. Here is your award.
@Erica: I think it’s ok to admit that a group of poor inner city black prisoners invented a term that feminists used. Seems that you are being a bit dismissive. This is going to sound harsh, but considering that people on the Open Thread are arguing that black men are such a sacred group of people that women with Asperger’s syndrome are obliged to stop having Asperger’s syndrome in their company, I think it’s far from OK to pretend that a term invented by feminists mainly in reference to women is attributed to a group of black men just because… Read more »
@ IACB,
That was about what I got out of it, too. Being less familiar with both her blog and and Abolitionist positions, I didn’t really feel qualified to comment, though.
Leum – I think FeministWhore’s problem with the term is that the term has a long history of use in radical feminism with the connotation that any kind of sex between partners of differing “power relations” were an example of “rape culture”. Which dovetails into the idea that sex workers are in an inherently powerless and rapey situation, hence can’t really consent to transactional sex, hence need “Swedish model” style prostitution laws to protect them. Certainly the fact that people like Kathleen Barry (who pretty much started the whole “neo-Abolitionist” ideology toward prostitution) and Andrea Dworkin were popularizers of the… Read more »
Daisy, I know about Brownmiller’s “Against Our Will”, but you have to find me the source for Barry’s term. It’s no where to be found. And yes, the film maker was a feminist, not a prisoner. And I think you are missing the point entirely, this is not an us versus them thing, rape in prison is just as bad as rape on the outside. Society made it socially acceptable to get raped in prison, but we’ve come a long ways towards making rape against women socially unacceptable. What I see all the time is some people dismissing real problems… Read more »
No mention until 1979? Which books are you reading? The NYRW intro to NOTES FROM THE FIRST YEAR was published in 1968, if memory serves. Susan Brownmiller’s “Against Our Will” was published in 1975, and Barry’s work was quoted therein. Brownmiller and Barry, both Redstockings, organized the first rape speak-out ever, which was in New York in 1971 and this term was already in full swing by then, although I think Shulamith Firestone used the term “rape- supported culture” (which I think means something different). Margaret Lazarus, director of the film you reference, wants to take full credit (she is… Read more »
Daisy, I don’t see any mention of Barry discussing Rape Culture until 1979. This film was made in 1974-75. Between 1975 and 1979 several other feminists picked up the term and used it. What am I missing here? And I don’t see why you are dismissing the valid point that guy makes just because he doesn’t mention second wave feminism’s redefining the term; in fact I think that was part of his point, that the story of the men inside prison who were being brutally raped, was used or appropriated to define feminist theory. If what was happening inside Lorton… Read more »
Daisy: Although I consider myself highly sympathetic to the skeptic cause (and treasure my collection of Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins books), there are people in the skeptic community who are complete assholes, just like there are in any community. This is probably because a fairly large segment of humans are complete assholes. He might be a provocateur or he might be sincere, at any rate he is an ass. Several atheist Youtube bloggers have had conflicts with him on many occasions, but the skeptic community has the same fundamental property as the feminist one in that nobody gets to… Read more »
RocketFrog, he may in fact be a provocateur. (Yippie rules dictated that we must take this possibility into account whenever confronting such a person, even if they were your friend.) TAA is the kind of fired-up person who will get born-again one of these days, and then talk about how atheism made him so mean and vicious, and then quote himself as proof.
I’ve been to that rodeo lots of times.
Erica, Kathleen Barry invented the term “rape culture” and her term had a specific meaning, which seems to have morphed into whatever people decide it means… but I certainly can’t take a post seriously that gives NO credit to the Second Wave feminist who invented the term, and what her specific meaning was.
When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.
I remain convinced that TAA is the single best argument for theism. The most succinct explanation for him is that a deity created him specifically to discredit atheism.
(I suppose that it is only fair to mention that he is also a quite polarizing figure in the skeptic community.)
Paul Elam and TAA are swine, straight up. After Daisy’s revolution, it’ll be extensive re-education camps for both. (((gets out clipboard, makes notes, plays “Holiday in Cambodia” and sings along)))
Solo, ain’t it the truth?
Leum
TAA – The Amazing Atheist
Video blogger on youtube.
“Paul Elam at A Voice For Men “jokingly” threatens to rape PZ Myers, because he is The Best at men’s rights.”
Was it a joke about rape? Yes.
Was it a threat of rape? NO.
Also, who or what is TAA?
I’m confused, what’s her problem with the theory of rape culture? It’s really hard for me to follow as she gives very few examples.The stuff she’s talking about towards the end (people saying “I’ll rape you to show you what it feels like”) seems like a perfect example of rape culture.
FeministWhore has a thing or three to say about “rape culture” framing in the light of TAA’s recent idiocy. I always love her rants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMSGoBOGH14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzZ1mDKcI6k
Here’s a very interesting post about the origins of the term rape culture and Lorton Prison. I like the fact he says we should ignore “victim sizing” and work on fixing the problem of rape both in and out of Prison.
http://www.ofmb.org/2012/02/lorton-prison-and-geniuses-of-real-rape.html
I didn’t say it wasn’t a rape joke, I said it wasn’t a rape threat. Read in context, I don’t think that’s a stretch at all.
I’m having trouble seeing the Elam quote as even a “joking” rape threat. It sounds more like he’s saying that they’re going to argue so effectively that anyone who disagrees will become metaphorically “butt-hurt”. Which is problematic in its own way, but it’s not in any way a rape threat as far as I can see. I also cannot see Paul Elams remark as a rape joke or threat, to me it implies that he is going to destroy him in a debate. Implying he is going to voluntarily get Lube in order to endure the butt-hurt. You guys are… Read more »
But first they’d have to acknowledge rape culture, in this case an intrinsic element of war culture, but rape culture nonetheless.
So the only way to do something about the way male victims are ignored is to buy into the idea of rape culture? No other way at all? Not just a simple acknowledgement that male victims are ignored?
Its this exact “Its our way or the highway” mentality that keeps people divided…
Or are you just here to attack MRAs?