For comedian Billy Batz, Male Abuse Awareness Week is personal.
When it comes to aggression, he who is the strongest wins and the youngest guy always loses. Because boys and young men are told by society that they must be strong and brave, they feel guilty about being defenseless against violent attacks. When they lose to their aggressor, they also lose face in the eyes of society. Because of this, male victims seldom seek professional help to deal with their hurt, anger and feeling of powerlessness. Many often self destruct by seeking refuge from their pain through drug addiction, sexual addiction, violent crime, self-mutilation and even suicide. Others pass on the pain by becoming abusers, thus perpetuating the cycle of abuse.
Jeffrey Leving, Attorney, legal analyst and CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX and ABC News contributor stated this year, “Worse is the fact that many men who are victims of abuse, not only do not get help, but often assume blame, believing doing otherwise is a sign of weakness and ‘unmanly.’ Men face many stigmas and stereotypes that force them to accept blame even when they are not to blame, and discourage them from seeking professional assistance even when they should. These are terrible obstacles for anyone to overcome.”
Billy Batz overcame such obstacles. He grew up in foster homes in upstate New York, and was abused throughout his childhood. He describes himself as one of the few who experienced such violence and didn’t end up a statistic of suicide or murder. “I did attempt suicide,” he says of the years he lived in group homes after aging out of foster care. “I got caught and I was thrown in a couple hospitals due to that. At that point of my life I didn’t think I was important. ‘I’m not even here,’” he says, describing the numbness that follows years of trauma, and “‘I can’t even get a family to want me,’” of the pain of neglect. “I had times where I raged against wherever I was living at. I had times where I ran away a lot. I had my violent times but as I got older … I don’t know,” Batz admits, of the mystery of his survival. “I lived in group homes and I was very fortunate to have some positive staff around me.”
The professional comedian, actor, and radio personality has lived in California now for more than a decade. Not long ago, traveling through Albany on a comedy tour, he visited one of the group homes in which he lived as a troubled youth, and was disturbed by what he saw: young people who are like he once was, in trouble and in need of direction. “I want to help those kids,” Batz says.
According to the US Department of Justice, 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before his 16th birthday; millions more will be the victims of physical, emotional abuse and neglect. The P. Luna Foundation raises awareness of the issue of abuse of men and boys, with a website offering help to male survivors of abuse, and an annual awareness event, Male Abuse Awareness Week, occurring this week December 1 through 8. In honor of the campaign’s fifth year, the P. Luna Foundation is holding a benefit concert in Van Nuys, California on December 1st, 2012. Tickets, information, where to donate and the link to see the concert streaming live are available on the Male Abuse Awareness website. Donations and proceeds from this event will allow the Foundation to hire grant writers and other staff for the male abuse awareness campaign.
Founder Petra Luna says, “I still find myself having to explain to people why we care about abused males. Denial about males being victims of abuse remains our biggest problem.”
Male Abuse Awareness Week is December 1-8, 2012.
Read more On Rape and Sexual Violence.
Feature image: (L-R) Billy Batz, Jeffrey Leving
With the final recognition of the covering up of the abuse of boys in care homes in the UK I really hope we can start triyng to change things. Sadly it seems that the lowest on the scale of mattering are working class boys, this has to change. Brave articles like this one will help people all over the world speak out.
I’m not sure that it’s appropriate to open the champagne yet! You only have to look at the history of failures and the patterns involved across the UK – But there is Jimmy Savile, who’s name just keeps popping up all over the UK in multiple child abuse scandals involving thousands of children and the majority of victims all boys. I do find it odd that so many people assume Saville was the only person in The UK with transport and able to travel so widely for so long. It’s almost as if Paedophiles and abusers are magically incapable of… Read more »
I can and answer that concern. The organization is called the P. Luna Foundation (not the Petra Luna Foundation.) It was founded in 2007 and is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. See http://www.plunafoundation.com/. Petra Luna is our founder but has retired from her music recording carrer and has dedicated her life to helping male abuse victims. I have worked with her for over 6 years and she is true to her cause. I did see that statistic quoted on a DOJ site at one time, but it is surely on the 1 in 6 site and that research is done… Read more »
Is it something like this you are looking for Mediahound: http://1in6.org/the-1-in-6-statistic/
although none of them seem at first glance to come from the DOJ.
Tamen – I’ve already sourced the 1 in 6, but it’s the ongoing references that the DOJ are the one’s who published that figure research that is the issue – along with the shifting age definitions. I have to say that I see the lackadaisical way such figures and facts are treated as symptomatic of the poor attitudes that exists towards child sexual abuse – and boys in particular. Tell folks they are going to have to pay one extra dollar per week in taxes and they will be up in arms and hyper-links will be flying! Have stats that… Read more »
I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish with your questioning, MediaHound. The figures of 1 in 6 for boys and 1 in 3 for girls are commonly quoted. Since most crimes of this nature are not ever reported, we’re guessing. Does it do more harm or good to the cause to question these numbers when they arise? I’m not saying we should remain ignorant, but that the effect of questioning figures that can’t be powerfully substantiated, for a problem we know is widespread and extremely damaging, is to question whether we care too much. I don’t think we care… Read more »
According to the US Department of Justice, 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before his 16th birthday… Whilst I have absolutely no issue with what some will see a startlingly high level of child sexual abuse, I am worried about this 1 in 6 figure being quoted (and the 1 in 4 figure for girls) because the details around the figures keep changing. There are reports that the age cut off is 16 and others report it’s 18 – and an inconsistency that does not serve anyone well – least of all victims. If anyone knows of the… Read more »