Myths about Male Rape

geekandmisandry:

“Men can’t be raped by women, they always want sex.”

This is absolutely bullshit for a very obvious reason. Men are not sex robots, they are individuals who can consent to or deny a sexual encounter for any number of valid reasons. Do not deny them their autonomy with this bullshit.

“Well you can’t really be raped by a woman because a man needs to have an erection.”

Arousal is not consent. Erection is not consent. Hell, erection isn’t even always arousal. So far as it has been explained to me some guys get them for no damn reason at all. On a bus, in math class, waking up in the morning. An erection is not an indication of consent. 

“Well if he had an orgasm then he was clearly into it.”

As stated above, arousal does not equal consent. But following on from this point the lack of knowledge about ejaculation is astounding. Male ejaculations are a spinal reflex. Men can absolutely be forced to have them. Sexual intercourse is not required for a man to ejaculate. A man having a seizure can get an erection and/or ejaculate. Is he asking for it? No.

“Men don’t feel violated if they are raped.”

Utter rot. While gendered social conditioning may have an impact on the way we deal with these issues, we are all still people and regardless of gender can have varying reactions to traumatic events. 

“Men being raped by women is funny, it’s a source of comedy.”

No. These films and TV shows and jokes about male rape, from movies depicting prison rape or a woman raping a man as a hilarious event or a joke to tell, it’s not funny. The invasion and victimisation of a person is not funny. The removal of their consent is not funny. If you think it is funny then you may need to check yourself, because there is nothing funny about being raped. 

Do not add to the victimisation of rape victims, do not view media that seeks to tell you that their pain is a funny anecdote or a throwaway comedic one-liner. Do destigmatise male rape, believe the victims and support them whenever you can.