Male rape still considered a joke in South Africa

Given the dismissive attitudes towards male victims of sexual violence in Western countries, it is easy to forget that male victims in other countries face a greater level of hostility. This is particularly true in many African countries where cultural norms still view men as inherently powerful and incapable of being raped unless they are gay.

This attitude can lead many abused men and boys to remain silent since the likely response to their coming forward would be this:

Samkelo Mabaso* was raped by a stranger in Nelspruit last November, but when he told his friends they laughed at him so he decided not to report the rape.

“I still remember that horrible night like it was just yesterday,” said Mabaso (26) who was walking home at around 7pm. “In front of me, there were two ladies and behind me, a man. Those ladies took a turn and I continued on the same road and the man followed me.

“As I was about to take a left turn, the man hit the back of my head.  I woke up in an abandoned house. He was on top of me and he took his penis and put it between my thighs. Then he turned me over and with force, he raped me,” said Mabaso.

The following morning, Mabaso opened up to a group of his friends because he needed their support and advice.

“But instead of comforting me, they laughed at me,” said Mabaso. “One of my friends said: ‘What, are you gay now?’ I just said ‘I’m not gay, I was raped’. But at that moment I knew that disclosing the event and opening a case would be a waste of time because, if my friends thought it was a joke, other people would probably also make fun of me.”

That is a horrible way to treat a friend, regardless of what happened.

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Boy’s rape filmed in notorious Dolphin Square — A police raid on Dolphin Square in London’s Pimlico area in 1985 uncovered a small-scale film studio in the living room of a first-floor apartment. Officers were acting on a tip-off that a boy, aged about 11, had been taken into the premises against his will. A forensic examination came to nothing. However, a few months later a sickening sex video was seized in the West End in which an officer recognised the flat as the location.

Child sex abuse survivor from Worcester is ready to climb Kilimanjaro to help other survivors — A COURAGEOUS survivor of child sex abuse from Worcester had in a sense already climbed a mountain by speaking out about his ordeal and facing his abuser in court. But now Tom Leavesley, formerly of Diglis, Worcester, is literally climbing a mountain to help other survivors so they do not suffer in silence as he did.

Federal judge: Ex-Yakima priest must pay sex-abuse victim $5M — A federal district court judge has issued a $5 million judgment against a priest who served in the Catholic Diocese of Yakima in the 1970s and ’80s. The civil lawsuit, brought by a man known as C.S. in court documents, alleged that the Rev. Dale Calhoun sexually abused him beginning in 1977 when he was 12 and ending when he was 17. The settlement is the largest civil judgment against an individual priest in Central and Eastern Washington, according to attorneys Bryan Smith and Vito de la Cruz of Tamaki Law.

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Illiberal Feminism Is Running Amok — When men disagree with illiberal feminists, a favored silencing tactic is to accuse them of “mansplaining.” The term grew out of a fairly brilliant 2008 essay by feminist writer Rebecca Solnit, who described the exquisitely annoying feeling of having a certain type of man condescendingly lecture a woman on a topic about which he knows very little—in this case Solnit’s own book.

Men Can Be Raped Too: Expert Urges Government to Recognize Male Rape — For the sake of gender equality, Jia Jian, a legal expert lecturer at the Chongqing-based Southwest University of Political Science and Law, made a proposal last Monday that the Chinese government expand the Criminal Law’s definition of rape victims in order to include males.

National support for abused men — For the first time in New Zealand, a national structure has been set up specifically to support male survivors of sexual abuse. Members from regional support groups around the country gathered at a hui in Nelson and made a commitment to the body, which would be known as the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust Aotearoa New Zealand (MSSAT).

Sexual assault cases: ‘Nirbhaya’ centres to focus on young male victims — Growing increasingly aware of molestation and sexual assault of young boys, the civic body will soon set up ‘Nirbhaya’ centres that, apart from providing medico-legal, surgical and psychological counseling to women victims, will also specifically cater to adolescent boys who have been subjected to such assaults.

Few male military sexual assault victims come forward

Posted on December 10, 2014

Male victims of sexual violence remain a largely hidden in society. While the media gives more attention to the issue of male victimization than before, many men and boys continue to remain silent. This is particularly true of men in the military.

Despite representing the majority of rape victims, assaulted men are significantly less likely to seek help or report their assaults:

According to an anonymous survey released last week by the Pentagon, nearly 1 percent of males in the U.S. military said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact, compared to 4.3 percent of women. That equates to about 10,500 men and 8,500 women. Yet only 14 percent of assaults reported last year involved male victims.

Afraid to be seen as victims or as weak or gay, men in the hyper-masculine military culture often don’t feel comfortable reaching out for help or reporting sexual assaults. Over the past year, though, the services have increased efforts to reach out to male victims, urging them to come forward so they can receive treatment and so officials can go after perpetrators.

Piers Morgan claims Shia LaBeouf “demeans real rape victims”

Piers Morgan proves himself incapable of keeping his foot out of his mouth:

Piers Morgan has condemned actor Shia LaBeouf’s “outrageous ‘rape’ claim”, writing that it “demeans real rape victims” and was “ridiculous” on Twitter.

The former British newspaper editor turned US commentator posted the remarks on the social media site last night, adding in a stream of tweets that LaBoeuf had “invented a supposed ‘rape’ for cheap PR” and that he was “lying”.

“Shia LaBeouf’s claim to have been ‘raped’ is truly pathetic & demeans real rape victims. Grow up, you silly little man.”

LaBeouf claimed during an interview with Dazed that he was raped during a performance art piece:

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$13.5M for Jehovah’s Witness sex victim — A San Diego judge has found that the governing body of the Jehovah’s Witness church covered up years of sexual abuse by a local church leader and continued to put children in danger of being molested, a ruling likely to echo across the country as alleged victims from other congregations take similar cases to court.

Ala. woman charged with sodomizing two young boys, sexually abusing young girl — According to an Oct. 29 report from The Call News in Mobile County, 25-year-old Brandie Renee Smith of Chunchula, Alabama, was arrested at her home on Stagecoach Drive by deputies with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office and charged with multiple child sex abuse crimes. Those crimes include six counts of sexual abuse of a child under 12 and two counts of first-degree sodomy. Smith was arrested and charged on Friday.

Dispelling the myths of male sexual abuse and offering hope — Sexual violence of males is not uncommon. About one in six males experience some form of sexual violence at some point in their lives. Reports of male childhood sexual abuse are under-reported. Sexual assault is a crime of power and control, not a crime of passion or sex. Adult sexual contact with young boys and adolescents is sexual abuse, not sexual initiation. Being sexually abused as a child does not mean you will become a sexual offender.

Jailed false accuser draws feminist support

Rhiannon Brooker accused her former boyfriend of rape and assault. Her accusations against Paul Fensome landed the man in jail for 37 days. While imprisoned, someone claimed that he was a pedophile and he had to be placed in protective custody.

However, the evidence showed that Brooker’s accusations were false:

Alibis, evidence from Fensome’s phone and his work shift patterns undermined Brooker’s accounts. Injuries were judged to have been self-inflicted and the police dropped their investigations into Fensome and turned their attention on Brooker.

Brooker initially told police she had made false accusations. But when she was charged with perverting the course of justice she retracted her confession. She was found guilty of 12 offences relating to false allegations of five rapes, six assaults and one false imprisonment.

The judge sentenced Brooker to three and a half years, which prompted outrage from feminists:

The support and campaign group Women Against Rape (WAR) was among more than a dozen organisations and lawyers who wrote to the judge arguing that a harsh sentence would put women off coming forward to report rapes for fear they would not be believed.

They wrote: “The prosecution was not in the public interest. A prison sentence will put even more women off reporting, enabling even more attacks from violent men. The resources spent on prosecuting Ms Brooker should have been put into prosecuting rapists and other violent men.”