Do we need to watch out for everyone?

Watch out for men on the street, and never go anywhere with a strange man. Children are raised learning to fear men and this leads to having blind trust for women. Many times in relationships women are depicted as the damsel in distress who are always innocent and the ones being abused or hurt by the man in the relationship. It has recently been reported in UCLA’s Health and Human Rights Law Project that 38% of victims of sexual assault were male. This is a much higher percentage compared to what has been reported in the past. When women are raped it often results in women having to fight hard against rape myths and proving it was not their fault. Although this is unfair there are also many support systems for survivors of sexual assault. This same conversation has to happen for men because people do not believe or understand that men can be raped can be raped. Men are often forced to penetrate and then if and when they report it they are not believed. According to new research, sexual victimization by women is more common than gender stereotypes would suggest. Men are constantly blamed for sexual assault and relationship abuse but men  are reporting forms of nonconsensual sex and 79.2% of victimized men have reported female perpetrators.” female perpetratorsOther than female on male abuse many LGBTQ+ couples and silenced by society thinking that two women in a partnership cannot face abuse. The law in heterosexism and women in same sex relationships do not report abuse due to fear of homophobic reactions and this leads to researchers not having an accurate account of abuse in same sex relationships. This leave many abused women hopeless and they have their spirits broken because they have no wherewhere to turn to turn. A lot of this ignorance and lack of resources comes from misunderstanding. When people hear rape they think of a scary man jumping out of the bushes. People also think that rape and sexual assault always have to consist of penetration. These common misconceptions lead to men and women who suffer from violence at the hands of women having a very difficult time reporting. To be able to help every survivor of sexual violence it is a necessity to be educated on the subject. Children should not be raised to only fear men but they should not be raised to fear both men and women. They should be raised to understand that assault and abuse knows no boundaries and can affect anyone regardless of gender and sexuality.