2 AM Writings

Are Men At Risk for Sexual Assault?

Hallo! Alastor again, today we'll be covering a very interesting subject (at least in my eyes). 

Please take note this essay will talk about sexual assaul/r@pe. If either of these is a triggering subject for you, please take care of yourself and don't read.

I'm sure most people here have heard the rumors about April 24th, "R@pe day". As I was reading posts about it, I saw many reoccurring messages such as:

"Girls, stay safe"

"Women are more at danger than men"

And even, "Men don't get r@ped".

This made me think, are women actually at more risk than men? Statistically speaking, yes. About 14.2% of men under 19 have experienced sexual violence. In comparison to  18.3% of women, that's much lower rates.

The thing is, these statistics are not accurate due to underreported male sexual assault. Only about 16% of men who have been documented by social service agencies (which means it was a very serious situation) considered themselves to have been sexually abused, compared to 64% of women who have experienced similar things In the same study. Sad, right?

Additionally, men tend to feel they should have been "strong enough" or "secretly wanted it". Taking into account the societal expectation for men to be strong, sexual, cold, and tough, that's not all that surprising that many men think in that way.

Another problem is that sometimes when a women r@pes a man, she can say that the man r@ped her (and in these cases, the women almost always wins [most likely because people view her as more susceptible to r@pe than the man] ). This is also made possible by the fact that it a general "fact" that women get r@ped more often.

By writing this I don't mean to imply that women aren't discriminated against or anything of the like. I just mean to raise awareness about men's struggles since they're not discussed nearly as much. Feel free to debate in the comments, just don't slander/hate. Anything of that sort will be deleted.

Hope this was an enlightening read!