As a member of a campus community with people around the age of 18, it is important to understand the prevalence of sexual assault perpetrated against males and how to help these victims.
“One in six men in the US is sexually assaulted before age 18, according to studies from the 1980s to the early 2000s,” according to the Student Health 101 website.
On Jan. 24 Student Health 101 sent an email called “How to be there for a male friend who has been sexually assaulted,” which addresses all the stereotypes regarding gender and ways to support the victim.
“We have a lot of male victims come in and I think the stigma for sexual assault is probably a little bit higher for men than for women just because there are beliefs that men don’t get assaulted,” Kendal Binion, graduate assistant of the Stop violence program at University of Wyoming, said. “So, it’s really hard for men to come in.”
The article mentions supportive ways on how individuals can help male friends such as by listening to his incident and providing him support, by not “othering” him, being thoughtful about our language and using statements such as “What can I do to help you?” and “I’m here for you.”
“When we are there for their victory, joy and happiness we shouldn’t back out when they are facing such huge trouble,” UW student Shannon Jill said. “And instead of showing stereotype[s], thinking we should provide them help and support.”
Binion said, “We probably have a couple of male students come in each year to ask for resources.”
According to Student Health 101 there was a study done by the Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation in 2015, of which seven percent of men reported being sexually assaulted while attending college.
“We are currently doing the climate survey right now, so we are hoping to have a much better understanding of what that looks like,” Binion said. “Because a lot of students who are sexually assaulted, male or female, still don’t seek free sources or don’t know about the resources.”
Stop Violence provides a broad range of resources to the victim. According to Binion, they help the individual not only to get a protection order against their assailant, but also helps to get mental health services and navigation assistance if their perpetrators are in the same class or lives in the same dorm, as well as helping the individual with the criminal process.
“The most important thing is not to make presumptions about our friend’s experience based on his identity,” Juan Miller, sophomore at UW, said. “We must pay attention to what’s going on with the person in front of us.”
