08 September 2012

Rape: Not Limited To Only Girls

The word 'rape' almost instantaneously elicits rage among people, stronger in women as women are the most prevalent victims of this heinous crime.


These are the statistics collected on the number of rape cases involving women.
When a woman is raped, ample of assistance if available for her. She, most of the time, gets the sympathy of others and her support system is most of the time, good. People around her help her recuperate from this traumatic chapter in her life. In short - help for a female sexual assault victim is readily available.

...
Have you ever heard of the myth that men get raped in the prison? Well, brace yourselves. It is not a fable, it is a FACT.

Yes, men get raped too. 



Consider this story that my dorm mate told me 4 years ago.

Many years ago, a 14 year old boy was tied to a pole and was raped by three construction workers in an industrial area. Upon finishing this sentence, my dorm mate burst into a fit of laughter. I sat there, horrified that she can even laugh at the poor boy's unfortunate circumstance. She proceeded to say that the boy must've been a sissy if he got raped by men. Again the horror juice continued to spew from her mouth. it was only then I realized, that people by default become protective over female victims but not male victims.
 Only then I realized that there are many, many ignorant people like her who doesn't know that rape, regardless of the gender of the victim, is still serious no matter what.
I wish I could have told her that a scrawny 14 year old teenage boy have no way to defend himself against three men who are hard laborers, honed by working long hours and can you just imagine the strength of a man who is used to handling heavy materials? Can you imagine that strength by three? Can you imagine trying to fight them off?
Yeah, I don't think so.
...

Don't think just because a man is expected by society to be able to defend himself because he is deemed superior in physical strength doesn't mean he'll kung-fu chop whenever he's attacked. Men get overpowered too, men get assaulted too and the impact of this trauma is no different than a female victim.
Unfortunately, there is almost NO HELP for male sexual abuse victims and boys/men who were violated are forced into silence, dying a little each day at having absolutely no one to turn to for help. Just try Googling about male rape victims, I was appalled at how little information I found in my google search for help for make sexual abuse victims.

There is almost none to scarce! Malaysia once had a facility for battered men but it was closed down from severe lack of finances and lack of support. The facility had only 2 inmates and God knows what happened to them now.

I just want to urge male sexual abuse victims to not be quiet about their suffering and seek help. You deserve as much help as a female sexual abuse victim. It's gonna be hard, dealing with people who are not understanding but trust me, there are MANY, MANY therapists out there who are compassionate towards your unfortunate circumstance.

Someone out there cares.

1 comment:

James Landrith said...

As a male rape survivor, I thank you for your compassionate comments.

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