Men Can Be Victims, and Survivors, Too

Many people don’t realize that men are also victims of sexual assault and rape.  This CNN article profiles two men’s stories.  One in six men report sexually abusive relationships, according to research presented in the article.

Part of a RAINN campaign to raise knowledge about the experiences of and resources for both men and women rape survivors.

Steubenville Anonymous is a Bro

Here’s an interesting example of a man working in a very visible (but anonymous until now) way to speak out against rape.  Eric Lostutter revealed that he was the member of Anonymous who helped to raise national attention about the rape of a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, OH by outting some of the members of the football team who had posted videos of and tweeted about the rape.

From the article:

… the man behind the mask is not who you’d (or I guess who I’d) expect him to be. Lostutter, who gave an interview to Mother Jones on Thursday, lives in Kentucky, seems to be part good ol’ boy and part bro. The 26-year-old is a cybersecurity consultant who likes motorcycle riding, Bud-drinking, flag-flying, and turkey hunting. He’s also an amateur rapper who goes by the name Shadow.

This is a case that men are an important ally in the fight against rape, while also raising some important ethical questions regarding privacy and our justice system.

Facebook Rules Changing to Address Gender-Related Hate Speech

Facebook has allowed pages and posts that celebrate assaulting women.  For example, from the article:

“Groups and images with allegedly humorous titles like “Raping a Pregnant B***h and Telling Your Friends You Had a Threesome” have always been only a click away and, under Facebook’s content policy until now, stood a better chance of surviving moderator review than photos of breastfeeding babies did.”

Click here to read an article describing the problem and how a social activist campaign has motivated Facebook to review and update their content rules.