I'm not surprised to read this. Any statistics about rape have to be taken with a huge helping of salt, because of all the issues surrounding data collection and self-reporting. However, I have read at least some reasonably reputable sources citing that in over half of all rapes that occur in the US, the victim is male[0].
Even if this is an overstatement, it's clear that the classic "man physically overpowers woman" narrative of rape is false - both because of the gender assumptions and because rape does not always involve physical dominance.
It's kind of sad that sexual assault and rape are oftentimes viewed through the lens of gender-based crimes. In reality, sexual assault and rape have nothing to do with gender, and should be treated as serious problems regardless of the sex and/or gender of both the victim and perpetrator.
By perpetuating a false image of rape/assault, we end up with a broken matched filter[1] for what constitutes rape. As a result, people tell themselves that what they experienced "wasn't really rape" - because the victim is male, or because they were under the influence, or because they were married to the perpetrator, or any other number of reasons. And this is how we end up with victims who stay silent.
[0] This is not the same thing as saying that over half of all rape victims are male!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matched_filter
Even if this is an overstatement, it's clear that the classic "man physically overpowers woman" narrative of rape is false - both because of the gender assumptions and because rape does not always involve physical dominance.
It's kind of sad that sexual assault and rape are oftentimes viewed through the lens of gender-based crimes. In reality, sexual assault and rape have nothing to do with gender, and should be treated as serious problems regardless of the sex and/or gender of both the victim and perpetrator.
By perpetuating a false image of rape/assault, we end up with a broken matched filter[1] for what constitutes rape. As a result, people tell themselves that what they experienced "wasn't really rape" - because the victim is male, or because they were under the influence, or because they were married to the perpetrator, or any other number of reasons. And this is how we end up with victims who stay silent.
[0] This is not the same thing as saying that over half of all rape victims are male!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matched_filter