We Need Each Other
Over the years, males in my life have shared heartbreaking experiences where someone else chose to sexually harass or physically violate them while they were kids, teens, and/or as an adult.
Simply put, we need each other.
Here is a website with a hotline and resources for men.
The above link also talks about the below-
1. Men are socialized not to express their feelings or see themselves as victims.
2. Pervading beliefs or stereotypes about men being abusers, women being victims.
3. The abuse of men is often treated as less serious, or a “joke.”
4. Many believe there are no resources or support available for male victims.
Yesterday, I sat with the last paragraph from the article When Men Are Raped by Hanna Rosin.
"Now the question is, in a climate when politicians and the media are finally paying attention to military and campus sexual assault, should these new findings alter our national conversation about rape? Stemple is a longtime feminist who fully understands that men have historically used sexual violence to subjugate women and that in most countries they still do. As she sees it, feminism has fought long and hard to fight rape myths—that if a woman gets raped it’s somehow her fault, that she welcomed it in some way. But the same conversation needs to happen for men. By portraying sexual violence against men as aberrant, we prevent justice and compound the shame. And the conversation about men doesn’t need to shut down the one about women. “Compassion,” she says, “is not a finite resource.”
We need to have conversations together, to honor each others struggles and pain, and to move forward in unity.
