"Most prolific" rapist reporting - male vs female victims

No, @ShootsFruitAndLeaves the attitude of 'Well. what did she expect' is not helpful. If there is a pervading fear of female solo adventures so that women dare not venture out, it is so negative and curbs the freedom of all women. I remember clearly the 70s and 80's female walks, to take back the night and to stop being fearful.
Being sensible is important for men and women but so is the opportunity for both men and women to live the lives they want.
if you just dwell on the 'What did she expect', you are curbing the freedom of all women.
This prolific rape case is terrible but it is a reminder that threats to both sexes exist and it is up to society to work at changing attitudes not spreading the 'What did she expect' reaction.

@mrsmuddlepies I certainly see young men being aggressive towards other young men for no good reason. and for this reason it's true that young men are more likely to be violently assaulted than young women.

BUT statistics aren't really the point here. I mean if one man says to another man 'what are you looking at?' and the second replies 'you', and then the first man punches him, then the second man has defended his masculinity, rather than choose to de-escalate.

So even though one person comes off worse, it doesn't imply that either party lives in fear because there is not an inbuilt imbalance as there is between men and women.

so the fact that lots of young men get assaulted doesn't mean that young men are living in fear that they are going to be randomly assaulted in a dark alley.

All over the world women and girls are taught to be wary of men, who are likely to rape them. Whereas men do not worry about being raped by men.

And indeed specifically in this case gay men are worrying about their image and saying 'don't be bigoted and say that straight men should be scared of being raped by gay men'. whereas clearly if you said to a woman that you are not allowed to be scared of men, then that would be ridiculous.

the default position of the world is that men go off seeking some degree of danger - I think Rory Stewart wrote a couple of books about doing this in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the only thing seen as untoward about it was the fact they are warzones, whereas when Pippa Bacca was gangraped and murdered during her walk in Turkey, the attitude was 'well what did she expect'?

Stephen Fry describes being raped as a young school boy by a Sixth Former when at Uppingham School. (Moab is my Washpot)
I should think rape was incredibly common back then at male boarding schools. I think many older men who attended such establishments were the victims of sexual assault but they never dared speak out.

I wonder how common male rape is, given that the news film above said 90% of male rape victims do not report the crime and that reports of male rape are up 33%.
@ShootsFruitAndLeaves says
A man on a night out doesn't worry about being sexually assaulted on the way home
Young adult men are most likely to be the victim of violent attacks from strangers. Women are most likely to be victims of domestic violence.
Perhaps young men should be made aware of the dangers of sexual assault when out in the evening. Not just women.
At the same time, it is to be hoped that both male and female victims will be helped and appropriate measures put in place to encourage reporting of and prosecution for those who carry out sexual assaults.

I tend to think that if the case had been covered while the trials we going on the papers would have covered the defences claims that it was consensual, that they were secretly gay, etc.

apropos of the victims being to blame or not and the difference between women and men in that regard, there is clearly a difference not in 'blame', but in the dynamics of the situation in that men generally don't live in fear of being raped, and indeed most rape victims are female.

A man on a night out doesn't worry about being sexually assaulted on the way home.

That's not to say any rape victim is to blame, just that there is a difference here.

an earlier poster said no helplines were advertised, I saw 2 mentioned, one for victims of rape generally and one for people who thought they might have been victims of this man
I think one difference in the victim blaming dynamic (why aren't these victims being blamed for being drunk and going to his flat) is that even if drunk, these men had no reason to think of themselves as at risk from this man, especially as he was so slight. Whereas women are constantly risk assessing and know that any man is a potential risk

Also. our local school nurse team have been giving personal safety talks to KS4 since 2000 (if not earlier). It certainly covers the dangers of leaving drinks unattended.

Thank you for the link@SuperSleepyBaby. It shows how difficult it is for male victims to report rape to the police.
I am still shocked that, one of the first posts on this thread, claimed that of course, the men were believed. In fact, the only victim to come forward was immediately arrested and not believed. Rape is horrible and it is a terrible crime. This is an horrific case and there should not be less sympathy for these male victims just because they are male.

@SuperSleepyBaby Thank you. I think male victims feel equally bad as female victims only they dont get the 'if you weren't out late wearing a short skirt' shit, they get the 'but you are a man and should have been able to fight him off'.

A woman's femininity and right to be female is questioned and a mans seeming inability to defend himself if equally questioned

Groggy “ Someone should have taken action around the time girls were bring routinely warned not to leave drinks unattended back in the early 00's. It shouldn't have waited until a significant number of men became victims in a very dramatic way to see this as 'a very bad thing'.”

This.

But it does come down to women being of less value.

Absolutely.

When I heard about this, I predicted an immediate government call to action.

The fact women were saying on a thread yesterday that it didnt matter, because the important thing was now something would be done makes me despair.

Someone should have taken action around the time girls were bring routinely warned not to leave drinks unattended back in the early 00's. It shouldn't have waited until a significant number of men became victims in a very dramatic way to see this as 'a very bad thing'.

Here’s a link to that interview with the male victim. He is very brave.
www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-51016041/male-rape-survivor-i-just-wanted-to-die

@ConnorRipley No they haven't given out a helpline number to call because those victims will be believed, but because they have far more videos of men being raped than they have victims. So there may be many men out there who have been raped but who are unaware still and they have a right to know.

I don't think this is getting excessive coverage because it has happened to men, but because of the huge number of victims and the unusual way the perpetrator preyed on young men who were vulnerable.

Warboyes got similar coverage.

I didnt think there was a bias in reporting these crimes. The reporting was quite is similar and it was not a case of victim believability and all but one never reported the crime as they were unaware it had occurred.

A young man on the news today (I think a different rapist) was saying he wasn't believed, was asked if he was homosexual or bi, asked if he had a girlfriend and so on.

I think all sexual crimes are treated with unwarranted suspicion.

And all Design and Technology revolves around the male physique.

Apart from those things related to housework.

As I recall, they decided not to do that in the Worboys case - they didn't even prosecute the majority of them, even though there were many more victims who wanted to testify.

In my (very few) dealings with the CPS (not related to rape or sexual assault cases), I have been frustrated.
They only want to proceed to trial in cases where they think there is a high possibility of conviction.
I've had two cases I was involved in not go to trial.
Could it have been the same in the Worboys case? - they only progressed the cases they thought most likely to succeed.
They did add some in later, once he was convicted, as is often the case.

But it does come down to women being of less value.

Listening to Woman's Hour about concussion affecting women in very different ways to men but very little research has been done.

And all Design and Technology revolves around the male physique.

Watching the news last night, when they were talking about reviewing the drug classificaion, i commenetd that it was strange how they were only now clamouring for change after a load of men were raped using this drug, as if the thousands of women who have been date raped with it are of no consequence. Makes my blood boil.

I was very struck by this story as well when I saw some articles on fb.
A lot of commenters saying how terrible it was, which it is, it's horrific.
However I noticed a distinct lack of victim blaming comments which are prevalent on any story about women being raped.
No one was questioning why these men were drunk, no one questioned why they went with a strange man, no one commented on items of clothing.
The difference in how Male and female rape victims are treated is stark and it made me incredibly sad actually.

I'm just trying to work out the rationale/bias that society generally seems to have on this topic. Whether it comes down women not really being fully human and there is nothing that a man can do to us, no matter how degrading, injurious, life-changing consequences like pregnancy, etc that makes some people consider it as bad as a man being subjected to one particular act by another man.

Our bodies and our lives are less valuable.

I presume your question is rhetorical?

Without getting graphic, why is a man raping a man considered by so many people to be "worse" than a man raping a woman? Is it because it's anal penetration, which isn't as "natural" as PIV penetration? That it's assumed no straight man would ever want anything up there? If so, why is it that so many, MANY women are also raped anally but that is considered not as big a deal, and also something she was likely to consent to, and needs to prove otherwise? Why is it considered more degrading and therefore not consensual when that happens to men than women, when actually it's men who have the equipment to receive pleasure from that act, not women?

Or is it because it's subjecting a straight man to a gay sex act and that is unconscionable because a man should never be forced into doing something so unthinkable - ie there is an element of homophobia to the mindset? As it seems it's less considered to be unconscionable to subject a lesbian to a straight PIV sex act, because that's what the vagina is for.

Before the derailers jump on this post, I am not suggesting that any of these men did consent. I am purely asking why there seems to be such a mindset of "of course no man would consent to anal sex", but yet women are assumed that they did consent to some extremely niche, violent, painful and degrading acts, with strangers.

I've been told by someone who has dealings with the CPS that they had so much stick over the Worboys decision that it influenced their decision to include all 48 victims who were willing to testify in the charges this time round.

I'm glad to hear that at least.

RoyalCorgi

A big difference also being, it was all on video.