There is no instance in which a victim of sexual violence should be silenced. Whether survivors of violent crimes are women or not, they deserve to be heard and the perpetrators of these crimes deserve to be brought to justice.
However, there are certain statistical truths regarding sexual violence that should lead society’s discussions on prevention and detention. First and foremost, one in four adult American women and one in 33 adult American men will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime. Additionally, only one in 50 perpetrators of these crimes are women. Ultimately, these harsh realities are the reasons that most conversations about rape culture pertain solely to women.
Regardless of what the above data demonstrate, it seems as though facts are often ignored by men’s rights activists, who accuse feminists of not caring about the male survivors of sexual crimes.
While it is true that many feminist conversations about rape culture do not include men, the fact that feminism is primarily a women’s movement does not indicate that male victims of sexual assault are any less important or legitimate than female victims. In fact, the goal of third-wave feminism is to eradicate the inequalities that exist between all genders, religions, orientations, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. Ultimately, feminists wish to eliminate structured oppression for everyone, so why would they wish to delegitimize male victims of rape?
Still, men’s rights activists and skeptics alike raise questions about feminism’s tactics. For instance, why not include everyone in conversations about rape given it’s such a prodigious problem? Well, conversations that include men do need to happen — everyone has a role to play in mitigating rape culture; but these conversations do not necessarily need to happen within the feminist community.
Feminism provides a safe-space for women to cope with and fight back against the oppressive society in which they live. It exists because oppressed people often need support from others who can empathize with their struggles — men have privileges that prevent them from being able to empathize with the struggles of women, even when they are survivors of sexual crimes. For instance, it is unlikely that a man will be asked what he was wearing during an assault, and it is unlikely that a man will be told that he deserved it due to his promiscuous behavior.
When men insist upon participating in feminist conversations about sexual violence, they make women feel uncomfortable by taking up much-needed space in their community. While it is undeniable and incredibly unfortunate that anyone falls victim, the fact that women are the primary targets of sexually charged crimes, and men carry them out most often, demonstrates a systemic problem that the feminist community is trying to address.
When men want a space in this feminist conversation, it indicates the already prevalent patriarchal desire to control how oppressed groups fight their own battles. When one comes forward to report and discuss the atrocities they have experienced, this should not mean they take up the space of others in the same conversation, even within the feminist community.
Ultimately it is undeniable that many men are victims of horrifying crimes. Hopefully, networks of support that bridge gender gaps will come about in order to offer support to all who need it; but currently, the desire of men’s rights activist to belittle the experiences of women in the name of their own is unacceptable.
Editor's note: Due to a previous editor error, the headline of this column was updated on Aug. 19 to accurately reflect the views of the columnist and the content of the article.
Reach the columnist at kpolickk@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @kaelynpk
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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