Men as victims of sexual assault

I want to approach the myth that men are not victims of sexual assault with this diagram ( taken from the Australian Institute of Criminology website).

While we know that women are overwhelmingly the majority of victims of sexual assault - this does not mean that men are not victims as well.

What is amazing to me is that while only .6% of men have been victims of sexual assault: THIS ACTUALLY TRANSLATES TO 42000 PEOPLE. ( Imagine what the actual numbers of women is!!!!!)

Yet again the perpetrators are almost always family members or friends: "Findings of sexual assault against men aged 18 and over in the 12 months before the survey include that 0.6 percent of men (42,300) experienced sexual assault, and that 44 percent (18,500) of these men experienced sexual assault by a family member or friend in the most recent incident, 35 percent (14,900) by an other known person and 33 percent (13,900) by a stranger".

The numbers of people in our society that are in some way effected by violence is staggering. The numbers of people that are effected by sexual violence is staggering.

Its time to bring this stuff into the open - to engage in discourse - to stop supporting the media in its condoning of violence-to stop supporting hyper masculinity - to stop the sexualisation of children and on and on.

All I can say is: I need it.