Rape crisis centres led by trans women....what the appeal for males to be involved in the running g of the!

That's what's so fucked up. In an ideal world, wonderful, caring, qualified men like your friend would be an asset in helping women after trauma. But it's the narcissists, whether with sexual intent or not that created this shit show.

In Ireland it is nearly impossible to bring up anything about violence against women/women's refuges/RCCs without an immediate 'But what about the men...?'

And even before it was legally obliged to do so, as current Irish equality legislation obliges, the Dublin RCC - I don't know about the others around the country - voluntarily opened their doors to men. I know this because I spoke to them about it many years ago, expressing my unease about it. They said they were careful to keep male and female clients separate, but I believe it was the principle of RCCs being women's spaces that was breached.

All groups supporting women survivors of male violence in Ireland now have to be very careful of how they describe themselves - our legislation does not even have the few single-sex exceptions allowed for by UK legislation, and any man can self-ID as a woman, so offering support to 'women' has to mean to anybody who says they are a woman.

I think many of the men who show up in stats as 'victims of rape/sexual assault' are adult survivors of sexual abuse as children, so the actual number of men who are sexually assaulted as adults, and in need of crisis support, is unclear.

All survivors of sexual violence, male, female, adult, child, need and deserve support, but why don't men put their energy into setting up their own specialised safe spaces for male survivors, instead of demanding that women share our RCCs with them, whether as clients or staff?

Just for a different perspective, sorry if this sounds like NAMALT.

I know an experienced male therapist who works with both female and male victims of sexual assault and CSA. He started working with male victims but over his career broadened into working with women too. He's absolutely not a misogynist or a perve.

There can be therapeutic value for a victim of male violence, in building a healthy, boundaried, respectful relationship with an ethical male therapist.

What MW was doing was something entirely different.

Paraphillia and misogyny.

I find it extremely difficult to read some of the things he said and not arrive at the same conclusion. It makes me feel ill.