Men as Victims of Sexual Assault

When I was a freshmen in college, I had a male friend who had been in college for 2 years. While I don't exactly remember how the conversation came up, I vividly remember his words. The story went something like this: "During my first year in college I was raped. I went out with the boys and got super drunk. Somehow I ended up in my dorm room with this girl. I was coming in and out of consciousness but I remember her forcing me to kiss her. I would try to push her off but I was too weak. All of the sudden I felt her taking my pants off and forcing me to have sex with her." As an uneducated friend, my reaction was "how is that even possible?" I could not believe that this had actually happened to him. But he did not treat this incidence as a setback, he treated it as a joke. Now, I can understand why. If he would have let himself appear as a victim, he would be taking away from his manhood. He would be going against the grain and showing that men are not superior to men and that they can be and are victims just like women.