Now obviously the main direct problem for this is that female perpetrators receive lower sentences than men for committing the same crime (a state of affairs not unique to rape in these countries but true across the board for most crimes, but that's a discussion for a different thread) but in a broader sense it is a bigger problem for society as it enforces toxic archaic gender roles and it minimises and lessens the suffering of male victims. It is already the case that male victims of any form of sexual abuse are derided by society and sneered at. We have often heard of cases where men, sometimes minors, have been raped or abused by a woman only to be "congratulated" by others. This state of affairs is frankly disgusting, but to have it validated by the state, lessening the suffering of these victims, is beyond appalling.
Don't be fooled into believing that this is purely an issue of criminal justice. As others have often pointed out, especially Gallo, the collection of rape statistics by the CDC has always ignored male victims. This is partially to do with the fact that sexist bigots such as Mary Koss have been employed to advise on how rape should be defined. One particular paper by Koss serves to illustrate this fact, Detecting the Scope of Rape : A Review of Prevalence Research Methods. From page 206 of this paper:
Although consideration of male victims is within the scope of the legal statutes, it is important to restrict the term rape to instances where male victims were penetrated by offenders. It is inappropriate to consider as a rape victim a man who engages in unwanted sexual intercourse with a woman.
Now I still have some small faith in the intellectual and moral integrity of NSG that I believe that the vast majority of posters here would agree with me that such an opinion is abhorrent, but I am sure that some will leap to her defence.
So, the question I put to you NSG is should men who are forced to penetrate a woman be considered a victim of rape? Or maybe you believe that such an occurrence is so incredibly rare that it doesn't matter?
If you do agree that male rape victims are treated abhorrently, what is the best way to deal with this? How do we ensure that male victims are treated like victims should be treated? How do we fight against the horrific minimisation of male victims of sexual assault?
And lastly, Happy International Men's Day to all of you. This is but one of many issues that men face that must be tackled. I would love to discuss domestic violence, suicide and the sentencing gap, but I decided that this topic is a good first step to make a stand and to create debate, as it is the hardest to be ignored by any sensible moral person. There's a long way to go and many times I am disheartened by the way these issues are treated by society at large, but I think that in the end we will win out.
EDIT: As most people have been focusing solely on one part of this thread I have decided to explicitly add some extra questions to promote discussion:
1. In those countries in which rape of a man is not defined as rape, what is the best way to change the law?
2. Should the rape of a man and woman be treated differently legally? For example should those who rape a woman be given worse sentences?
3. The CDC defines rape in such a way to exclude male victims, should this be changed to be more inclusive and what are the wider implications of this CDC policy?
4. Do you agree with Mary Koss's statement above? If not how should such beliefs be viewed by society? Is she a sexist/misandrist bigot? Or do you believe, like her, that forcing men into sex is of lower significance than forcing women into sex?
5. Is there a problem with how male victims of sexual assault and rape are viewed by society? If so, how can this be changed?
