Female-male rape
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 1 in 21 men (4.8%) reported that they had been forced to penetrate someone else, usually a woman; had been the victim of an attempt to force penetration; or had been made to receive oral sex.
Two myths that men are not able to be raped by women include: Men always want sex, so women do not have to force themselves on men, and men must be aroused to have an erection. meaning that a man need not be aroused for his penis to become erect and be placed in a woman's vagina; mechanical stimulation is all that is necessary. Arousal and stimulation are not the same thing. Stimulation is a physical response to a stimulus. For example, when a person steps on another person's toe, the stimulation felt is pain and there is nothing that can be done about this. Men can be physically stimulated without feeling aroused and thus causing an erection. Men can be scared and intimidated into one, especially if the person is older or an authority.
Male victims of sexual abuse by females often face social, political, and legal double standards. Gender-neutral laws have combated the perception that rape rarely occurs to men, and other laws have eliminated the term rape altogether. In 1978 in the UK, Joyce McKinney was sentenced to 12 months in prison for forcing a man to have sex with her while chained up. With the prospect of male sexual victimization presenting itself in the media, the primary myths and facts about rape against can be accessible to the public. Many of the myths about male sexual victims are centered on cultural and sexual stereotypes that a proportion of society holds against victims. Some of the major myths about male sexual victims include the following: boys and men cannot be victims, most sexual abuse of boys is committed by gay males, boys are less traumatized than girls, and physical arousal by boys means that they were willingly participating in the encounter. Each of these myths can be countered by sociological, psychological and scientific evidence.
Several widely publicized cases of female-on-male statutory rape in the United States involved school teachers raping their underage students. Federal law states that the age of consent in the United States is 18 nationally, but may range from 16-18 within differing states. Under federal law, any sexual encounters between adults and minors under the age of consent is considered sexual assault. (See, for example, Mary Kay Letourneau or Debra Lafave.)
Some cases in the United States have received increased attention and sparked awareness within the population. Sometimes referred to as "made to penetrate" cases, male rape victims are made to engage in penetration of the female without proper consent. Many times the male victims are under the influence of drugs or alcohol or being held in life threatening positions. The case of Cierra Ross sexually assaulting a man in Chicago gained national headlines and Ross was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and armed robbery with a bail set at $75,000. Cases like this one are often described as "unusual" or "uncommon." In the case of a female being a victim of sexual assault, the male criminal could face up to a life sentence in prison, whereas the punishment for a female rapist is far less severe. A similar case includes James Landrith.
Since most studies have found that people tend to blame the victim of rape for the incident, a study called Gender Differences in Attributions of Blame for Male Rape Victims in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence focused on where the blame lies in rape cases. In cases of female rape victims, a higher proportion of males than females tend to blame the victim for the sexual assault. In order to show whether males or female respondents blamed the rape victim at a higher rate, this study utilized a story of a man being raped to see if the blame was placed on the victim or the assaulter. After performing the experiment, researchers found that a statistically significant proportion of males tend to blame the victim, even when the rape victim is a male. This study implies that even in cases of male sexual victimization, the male victims are held responsible for the assault by the majority of the uninvolved population.
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