Often times, when people think of sexual assault, they think of it as a “woman’s problem”.  Traditional education on sexual assault has centered on teaching women to protect themselves and teaching men not to rape.  Although it is important to teach women to protect themselves and men not to rape, education that stops there is behind the times.  The reality of it is that men can also be victims, and women can be attackers.  The important thing to teach is awareness. One in six males will be sexually assaulted as a child, and according to one study involving college students, as many as sixteen percent of males will be sexually assaulted as an adult.  However, male victims are less likely to report assaults than women are.  As a result, males tend to deal with what happened to them alone, and in many cases, in an unhealthy manner.  There are several reasons why men tend to be less likely to report their assault; below are a few examples. 
 

Fear that the will not be believed

When people think of sexual assault, they often think of men assaulting women, so the male victim may feel that if he reports his assault, he will not be believed.  The only thing we can do to help this is to get the word out that ANYONE, regardless of sex, age, weight, etc. can be a victim of sexual assault.  Once society accepts that fact, perhaps male victims will be more willing to seek help. 

Fear of being blamed 

The victim may feel that because he was a male, he should have been able to fight off his attacker.  He may feel that it was his fault for putting himself in the situation where he was assaulted.  Sexual assault is never the victim’s fault – it is important to be sure that people are aware of this fact.  Once they believe that, they may be more likely to report or at least seek help if they are assaulted. 

The questions of “manhood” 

Society stereotypes men as tough and aggressive.  “Manhood” is often measured in terms of physical and emotional strength. Sometimes, a male survivor will not come forward for fear that others might question his “manhood” because of what has happened to him. 

Concerns about sexuality 

When a man is sexually assaulted, it is almost always by another man.  Research indicates that some victims never come forward because they fear being labeled as homosexual when they are a heterosexual.  The fear is even greater in cases where the victim has an erection or ejaculations.  This is a physical response that can happen even if the victim is afraid, unwilling, resisting or even unconscious.