It’s quite revealing that the only time MRAs ever mention male rape victims is to make a straw-man argument that feminists don’t care about them.
Well…do you care about them? All we see is the definition of rape changing to more men-women rape, men not being able to be raped legally in some countries (e.g. UK), and little to no funding going to help these victims. All the while the feminist community is silent on the issue and spewing false statistics about how “95% of rapists are men”,
I can’t speak for any country outside the US, as that’s where I am, but my response is this:
Firstly, in January 2012, it was the Obama administration, backed by several feminist-supported organizations like RAINN who work on behalf of ALL rape survivors, that officially changed the definition of rape to include male and non-gender-binary people as victims.
“The old definition — “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will” — covered only forcible penetration of a woman’s vagina by a penis, and excluded many other kinds of sexual assaults that count as rape under more modern definitions.
For example, the outdated definition did not count forcible anal or oral penetration, the penetration of the vagina or anus with an object or other body part, the rape of a man, or the rape of a woman by another woman.
It also did not cover nonconsensual sex that does not involve physical force — like the rape of people who are unable to grant consent because they are drugged, very drunk or younger than the age of statutory consent in their state, a number that varies across the country.” (2)
The new definition is “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
Those fighting against this redefinition and broadening of the definition of rape were not feminists. Feminist groups vehemently fought for expanding the definition to one that included male or non-binary victims, female or non-binary perpetrators, instances like date rape, statutory or unconscious rape, AND the use of objects other than a penis as a tool for rape.
Those against this redefinition were generally conservative groups and Republican politicians.
In other words, anti-feminists.
The reason why GOP members were against redefinition bill was not about rape at all. They were afraid that broadening the definition of rape would make abortion more accessible to victims of all types of rape, not just “forcible” or “legitimate” rape as they so-descriptively called it. These conservatives didn’t care about helping male victims, punishing female perpetrators, or modernizing how we deal with rape at all. They cared about making abortions harder to access, at the expense of rape victims. They threw all victims of rape under the bus, including men and trans* folk. That is the true meaning of anti-feminist.
So there’s that.
Also, I don’t know where you get your statistic about feminists claiming that 95% of rapists are male. If you could source, that would be great. When doing my own research, I found that the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics states that 91% of rape victims are female and 9% are male, and 99% of rapists are male. That means that the majority of those that rape men are also men. (1)
ALSO: I have seen this post that links to organizations that provide support for male victims floating around on feminist blogs. Not MRA blogs, not conservative ones. Feminist blogs.
So quit your hollering.
sources:
In otherwords, MRA’s think the same way that conservative groups and Republican politicians think. Considering they are all anti-feminist. They will throw all rape victims under the bus, unless of course, they find a way to derail a feminist conversation about rape. When talking about women who are rape victims, they will without fail bring up stats about male rape victims (often times either made up or citing places that also have an anti-feminist slant).
(via captstefanbrandt)
