Sensitive - Do people believe that male rape is worse than if a woman is raped?

[Spookyseason13]

There was a soap on last night and it featured a man being raped. It was quite graphic and obviously a horrific thing to happen to anyone in real life.

It’s being discussed a lot by the shows fans online. From the comments I’ve read, a lot have either said that they couldn’t watch it as it was too upsetting, or saying how the storyline was too much, or just generally saying how awful it was.

I’m interested to know if people feel that somehow a man being raped is worse than a woman being raped.

The reason I ask is because sure I feel that sexual violence against women is fairly normalised and commonplace entertainment on TV and doesn’t seem to attract the same level of shock and horror. Often the woman is even blamed for putting herself into a dangerous situation.

I feel that you are missing the point.

I am not categorising either as worse.

But I do think that society normalises sexual violence against women.

A lot of the replies have hit the nail on the head of what I’m thinking.

I remember Hollyoaks doing a male on male rape story line years ago. It was horrific and really followed how he was after. I think a woman's rape on tv is that normalised it doesn't have the shock factor.

I think some people do, yes (most of those who feel that way are probably men)

I remember the horror about its portrayal in Outlander (?). Really annoyed me.

Yes it was awful. Was it worse than raping a woman? No.

But many raped men don’t want men delivering rape support.

Yeah I would completely agree with that too.

That’s the potential outcome of a rape. The actual rape itself are equally as bad. What if a man got HIV, that’ll change his life forever? Your viewpoint is very small minded

Nope it’s the same for men and what happened at my son’s perpetrator’s trail. There was strong evidence and he was a repeat offender. The police said they absolutely knew he’d done it. My son( still technically a child )was grilled and the ‘ asking for it’ portrayal was very much in evidence. This is particularly so if the victim is gay.

I don't know if you can say that with certainty. Men may well be more conditioned not to talk about it than women, or feel they should have physically been able to stop it. I wouldn't be amazed if it happened just as often or much more than we think to boys/men too.

I think as a woman it is almost hard to believe men are more shocked by it, because we are almost always told men simply can't control themselves if we wear revealing clothes. We know all men could do it, so them being shocked about rape seems a bit disengenuous to me, more that it is about them being gay and gay rape is the issue. After all, not like a boy can show too much leg or boobs...so what's the excuse? Can't blame it on the victim.

What an appalling thing to say, female rape is not worse. They’re both as bad as each other.

It’s not a competition.

Both horrific.

Really not sure why people keep saying it’s not a competition. Where have I said it is?

I personally think that rape is rape. It’s a complete violation.

But judging by what I see and read I get the impression that male rape is perceived as worse. Sexual violence against women is most certainly more normalised.

What a horrible, vicious and outright wrong statement. Hopefully your son doesn’t grow up to be as nasty as you.

Not it isn’t.

You set it up as "which is worse" competition with this thread!

Quantifying which is "worse" is pointless and distasteful. And whether the victim is male or female is only one factor among many that might determine the nature of their trauma.

I guess, if you look at it objectively, anal rape is probably more painful overall.

But women can be raped like that too. They're both equally horrendous crimes.

No. She asked whether people think it’s worse. That isn’t the same at all.

Actually I want to delete playing any part in this conversation.

I guess it's seen as worse if the victim was the 'wrong' sexuality. Like I reckon if a gay guy was raped they'd get less sympathy than if it was a straight guy? I could be wrong. I don't agree with that btw as it's homophobic.

But any rape is vile.

Well it is.

It’s not unusual or shocking to have rape scenes on TV where women are attacked by men.

It’s still very common for women to be blamed for being raped.

Rape is rape no matter what the sex of a person. I speak from experience. to hear of a raped man is 'unusual', hence the shock factor.
it should make no matter if the victim is gay or not, that is like saying a sex worker cannot be raped.

I agree with this and think it is well put. I guess the anal aspect of it makes it ‘worse’ as well; of course this happens to women too

@Spookyseason13 i think it’s a really interesting topic. I remember when a character on Hollyoaks had this storyline in the 1990s, I think, and it being shocking and controversial. It’s been repeated a few times and feels like for shock value every time.

I think the thing about anal rape, victim being male or female, is that it would be incredibly painful. Well to hat is my perception but I've never been raped. So if a rape is reported on and it is anal penetration or is also anal then it has an added sense of horror for me.

Having said that many years ago I worked for the vice squad in my city and talking to prostitutes who were being processed I realised we all have different views eg I'd be told kissing on the lips was more personal than sex and oral sex was less personal than sex. It didn't seem logical to me but then I wasn't the one doing it.

No I didn’t.

You either haven’t read my op properly, or you haven’t understood.