What is male sexual assault ?
Male sexual assault is when you have been forced to take part in any sexual act with another man or woman which you did not willingly consent to. Even if you did not resist or fight back at the time of the attack, it is still assault.
Who does it happen to ?
Anyone. It may have happened to you whilst you were a child, teenager, or as an adult. It is not a 'gay crime' - it happens to more straight men than gay men.
Who are the perpetrators ?
Anyone - male or female. Facts show that more men were abused as children from within the family than by others. Over 50 % of men were raped by people they knew rather than strangers. This includes peer rape. Most men who rape men are not gay.
It doesn't happen that often does it ?
It's much more common than most people think. Research statistics tell us that 1 in 20 men reported a non-consensual sexual experience as adults and over 1 in 5 men reported sexual abuse as a child.
What are the effects on male survivors ?
Whilst the each individual has varied effects the common effects include; feelings of shame, guilt, isolation, depression, anger, anxiety, issues about sexuality and gender,drug and alcohol abuse, self-harm, eating disorders, negative body image, sexual problems, mental health problems and relationship issues.
Why do we not hear about male sexual abuse ?
Most people don't even realise that male rape exists or if they do, they believe it only happens in the gay community. A man who is trying to come to terms with sexual assault often feels nowhere to turn to. Help for women in this situation is often well published. On top of that society has certain expectations on men " macho" "strong" and "able to take care of themselves". This only makes the fear, confusion and self-doubt felt by survivors of male rape and sexual abuse worse;
Men rarely report male rape and sexual assualt. Men rarely tell what has happened to them. Society stops them.
At HOPE we understand the issues men face, we support male survivors of all sexual abuse.
We apologise if below we have repeated similar information on other pages on this site, but feel that men need to be able to own what has happened to them.
Men only !
Other articles for men:
click on links below
Healing Our Past Experiences
Self-help and support services for adult survivors of childhood and or adult sexual abuse
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