TW: Rape of men

[reboot]

So topics like this: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men are something I have been working on with the recent increase in refugees and qualification for refugee status. Rape is always a shadow issue, doubly so when it happens to the gender that "should not be raped" (technically this should be every gender, reality does not interpret it that way). For male victims, it is shadows in shadows.

I started this thread because so many of the victims do not have a safe place to speak. This can be a safe space. Oh and PS: anything less than supportive will result in so e sort of ban.

[Werel]

That's a gutwrenching article.

I hope it's not off-topic to talk about funding aid services for male rape survivors. Aside from the horror of sexual violence, this bit was disturbing for pragmatic reasons:

"I know for a fact that the people behind the report [on sexual violence in East Africa] insisted the definition of rape be restricted to women," he says, adding that one of the RLP's donors, Dutch Oxfam, refused to provide any more funding unless he'd promise that 70% of his client base was female.

The erasure and silencing by men's peers and families is one thing; why would international NGOs have a stake in denying the rape of men, though? Aside from the "cake isn't big enough for men to have a slice" thinking, which is troubling enough on its own, is there a situation in international aid funding where certain pots of money are devoted exclusively and inflexibly to women's services? (I know there are similarities in academic funding, where some topics are just The Fundable Thing for no very good reason* and command a disproportionate amount of grant money.) Should/can the funding pools labeled "wartime sexual violence" be separated out from those labeled "for women only"? Is it just a funder culture issue?

*edit: not saying there's "no very good reason" to fund services specifically for women! Just that there's no very good reason to restrict sexual violence services to them.

[DazedAndConfused]

The rape of men is often dismissed as a non-issue, especially if it happens to convicted criminals in prison (where it is incredibly widespread). Male prisoners are victims of sexual victimization and rape at alarming rates.

No matter how many bad things a person has committed, they still don't deserve to be raped. This should be clear to anyone with a working moral compass, however far too often prison rape is excused or justified is the victim is guilty of a crime which is deemed heinous enough.

[Werel]

Good lord, yes. I'm still astonished when I'm the only one in the room mouthing off at people who make prison rape jokes. Even in the most progressive circles, the rape of the incarcerated is apparently one of the topics where the "seriously not fucking funny" memo hasn't arrived yet. Get back to me on that when one of your friends has committed suicide rather than go back to jail and be sexually assaulted again, "it's just jokes" folks.

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