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History of Feminism
Related: About this forumThis is from 1992. (HoF thread)
1992
It was obvious to me at the police station that I was held in contempt because I was a victim. And we learn that blaming the victim is not for women only
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I wasn't in control. I know also how women and children are routinely punished when they speak out about abuse, how they are blamed for their own victimization. The examples are endless: Witness the contempt with which Anita Hill was treated. For these reasons and more I'm still reticent, years after it happened, to recount what happened to me that day in Ohio. This article marks the first time in 15 years I have publicly discussed it under my own name.
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For myself, I don't need for rape to be gender neutral to feel validated as a male survivor. And I certainly don't need to denigrate women, or to attack feminists, to explain why I was abused by the (male) police, ridiculed by my (male) friends, and marginalized by thefmale dominated) society around me. It is precisely because we have been "reduced" to the status of women that other men find us so difficult to deal with. It was obvious to me at the police station that I was held in contempt because I was a victim feminine, hence perceived as less masculine. Had I been an accused criminal, even a rapist, chances are I would have been treated with more respect, because I would have been seen as more of a man. To cross that line, to become victims of the violence which works to circumscribe the lives of women, marks us somehow as traitors to our gender. Being a male rape survivor means I no longer fit our culture's neat but specious definition of masculinity, as one empowered, one always in control. Rather than continue to deny our experience, male survivors need to challenge that definition.
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http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/1992spring/pelka_spring1992.php
...
I wasn't in control. I know also how women and children are routinely punished when they speak out about abuse, how they are blamed for their own victimization. The examples are endless: Witness the contempt with which Anita Hill was treated. For these reasons and more I'm still reticent, years after it happened, to recount what happened to me that day in Ohio. This article marks the first time in 15 years I have publicly discussed it under my own name.
...
For myself, I don't need for rape to be gender neutral to feel validated as a male survivor. And I certainly don't need to denigrate women, or to attack feminists, to explain why I was abused by the (male) police, ridiculed by my (male) friends, and marginalized by thefmale dominated) society around me. It is precisely because we have been "reduced" to the status of women that other men find us so difficult to deal with. It was obvious to me at the police station that I was held in contempt because I was a victim feminine, hence perceived as less masculine. Had I been an accused criminal, even a rapist, chances are I would have been treated with more respect, because I would have been seen as more of a man. To cross that line, to become victims of the violence which works to circumscribe the lives of women, marks us somehow as traitors to our gender. Being a male rape survivor means I no longer fit our culture's neat but specious definition of masculinity, as one empowered, one always in control. Rather than continue to deny our experience, male survivors need to challenge that definition.
...
http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/1992spring/pelka_spring1992.php
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This is from 1992. (HoF thread) (Original Post)
redqueen
May 2014
OP
yes, but -- I --- think --- I am beginning to see a small crack in the facade...
Tuesday Afternoon
May 2014
#5
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)1. illuminating, powerful sentence here:
Being a male rape survivor means I no longer fit our culture's neat but specious definition of masculinity, as one empowered, one always in control. Rather than continue to deny our experience, male survivors need to challenge that definition.
malthaussen
(17,874 posts)4. As I keep saying...
... the definitions of "strength" in our culture make this inevitable.
It's also interesting that in the times of the Greatest Generation (soi-disant), male homosexuality was considered no big deal as long as you were the one on top. The insult is "cocksucker," after all. This is another function of that specious definition of strength and masculinity. I'm pretty sure times haven't changed a whole lot since then.
-- Mal
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)5. yes, but -- I --- think --- I am beginning to see a small crack in the facade...
glimpses... but, enough to hope.
ismnotwasm
(42,533 posts)2. 15 years and what do we get?
Buncha assholes who belittle rape every chance they get
Squinch
(53,798 posts)3. I guess they really AREN'T learning from these conversations.