‘Forced to Penetrate’ – the awkward term used to describe the experiences of male victims of non-consensual sex with a woman. The clumsily wording that categorises such men out of the definition of ‘rape victims’, to classify them both legally and academically as… well… something else. These men who through coercion, psychological abuse, drugging or other means were ‘forced to penetrate’, are not considered as victims of rape in academia, or even by our laws. They are the “hidden-hidden” victims of sexual violence, suffering the dual stigma of being both a male survivor, and a victim of female perpetration. We don’t want to know about them, we don’t want to hear their stories, and so they fall through the cracks of social support, data capture, and public consciousness. Not only are they excluded from care, academic recognition and even legal protection, but they are also woefully understudied within the field of sexual violence. In fact during the last ten years, the only progress in FTP research has come from America and the CDC, who are finally capturing victimisation, and the experiences of such men – to reveal a shocking 465,000 American men will experience FTP annually. In the UK there was no research on these men at all. Nothing until a small study was published just a few years ago, the first of its kind, that captured the stories and testimony of thirty British men who had experienced FTP and the impact it had, and continues to have, on their lives. This post shares those experiences. So is it time we talked about the hidden hidden victims of sexual violence? ~ Full study Images by Keagan Henman, PJ Gal Sazbo, Val Stoker, Dan Torres, Mark Adriane, Kelly Sikkema, Vruyr Martirosyan, from Unsplash. #sexualviolence #sexualviolenceawareness #sex #survivor

2023-07-30