Comments on: When a Man is the Victim: A Second Study in Rape Apology

By: Geeking Out About… » Trisha’s Link of the Day: Observe and Report’s rape controversy

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:04:52 +0000

[...] a look at this article from The Curvature, and think about the early scenes in The Reader, wherein we are told and shown that a sexual [...]

By: Why Do We Demonize Men Who Are Honest About Their Sexual Needs? — The Good Men Project Magazine

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:15:54 +0000

[...] ranging from huge communities devoted entirely to teaching men how to pick up women, to the tragically callous dismissal of the experiences of men who have been [...]

By: Why Do We Demonize Men Who Are Honest About Their Sexual Needs? | World Change Cafe

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 01:04:49 +0000

[...] situations ranging from huge communities devoted entirely to teaching men how to pick up women, to tragically callous dismissal of the experiences of men who have been [...]

By: Rape, Male Victims, and Why We Need to Care — The Curvature

Rape, Male Victims, and Why We Need to Care — The Curvature — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:48:16 +0000

[...] this week, Meghan Murphy of the Feminist Media Collective blog wrote a piece attacking an old blog post I wrote about rape apologism specifically directed at male rape victims, as well as a recent post on a similar subject by RMJ over at Bitch. This post is titled “Can [...]

By: Can a man be raped by a woman? | The F Word

Can a man be raped by a woman? | The F Word — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:58:34 +0000

[...] recently revisited this post, published on The Curvature last year as a result of Bitch Magazine’s blog post around The [...]

By: Lil Wayne Jokes About His Own Rape - The Sexist - Washington City Paper

Lil Wayne Jokes About His Own Rape - The Sexist - Washington City Paper — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:07:54 +0000

[...] the Kimmel segment aired, Cara at the Curvature wrote an excellent piece about the cultural tendency to respond to sexual assaults against males by recasting the assault as [...]

By: Cara

Cara — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:23:39 +0000

DRJM,

Thank you for your comment. I addressed this when this post was cross-posted at Racialicious. The term I used was “hyper-sexualized,” not “hyper-sexual.” The term hyper-sexual describes what you describe up above. The term hyper-sexualized describes these attitudes being unfairly thrust upon another person. Thus, what was intended by the statement is not that black men are more sexual than men of any other race, but that they are portrayed that way. With these racist attitudes being so rampant, I should have been more careful, and written something along the lines of “it’s certainly true that black men are hyper-sexualized by our culture and media” instead. I apologize again for my unclear phrasing, and the distress that it has caused.

By: drjm

drjm — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:56:29 +0000

I applaud you for attempting to address this largely undiscussed issue (issues of gender and race with regards to rape). However, I find your comment “It’s certainly true that black men are hyper-sexualized.” Seriously? With that statement you’ve taken a scene out of the racist movie “Birth of a Nation”. And what evidence do you have to support this hypersexualized myth? As a progressive, Black, female graduate student you should know that that statement is demeaning, discriminatory, and inflammatory. The myth of the “hypersexualized” black male and female harkens the age of slavery and the widespread racist views held by the dominant society. And from comments such as yours and the still wideheld view of the lascivious nature of Black Americans (I know, I know, innumerable daytime TV shows about finding ones baby daddy, high rates of unintended pregnancy and STIs may allow you to skim over the widespread poverty, lack of resources, poor education, lack of access to quality health care in communities of color), but seriously. Get with it!!!! You should be ashamed!!!

By: thelady

thelady — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:29:36 +0000

This type of rape seems to be very common. I know of several young men who describe their first sexual experience as under the age of 11 and involving a baby sitter or some other adult or late teen female who was entrusted with their care. When I was upset by these stories they were very reluctant to describe it as rape probably because of all the rape apologism in our culture. Just like whenever one of these teachers is caught having sex with 13, 14 year old male students, the courts let them off with a light sentence as if it is no big deal.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:20:54 +0000

I just read this article and, boy, it’s really powerful! Thank you for the good, interesting read, Cara. I ended up using this topic for my term paper in my International Issues with Child Protection course. I think it’s good to address male rape victims. :)

And then afterwards, I started reading the comments…

Though it’s not my place, I too am a little disgusted with toysoldier’s comments. While it’s sad to hear that he had a rape experience as well, it is quite clear to me that he either a)misunderstood Cara’s article or b)didn’t read it in its entirety (which is a big no-no).

Despite what others are saying, toysoldier did quite clearly bash feminists, as well as female victims, whether he intended to or not. And for that, I feel deeply annoyed.

Anyway, just wanted to express my opinion. Thank you for this good topic, Cara. The more it is made known, the better!

-Alex