STIGMAS OF MASCULINTY AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE 1

Alexa Moreno

Instructor McGovern

PSY 231

11 May 2017

The Stigmas of Masculinity and Its Relationship with

Sexual Violence and Rape Culture

A stigma is an inherently “bad” type of person or quality. It is through stigmas that

infamous ideologies have been reinforced throughout our society, whether it be sexism, racism,

ableism, etc. Masculinity is not an inherently negative thing, it is rather the conventional traits in

which are associated with men. So, where is the aspect of sexual violence in relationship to

stigmas of masculinity? What traits that were once simply associated with being a man, have

become those that are associated with sexual predators?

The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) reports that there is an average

of 321,500 victims of sexual assault, who are 12 or older, each year in the United States. One out

of every six American women has experienced a partial or complete rape, and one out of ten rape

victims are male. The perpetrators themselves are often known by victims (70%), half of

perpetrators are 30 years of age or older, and 57% are White. Even with these averaged out

statistics, sexual offenders are not as easy to profile as some would hope. They are as the Center

of Sexual Offender Management (CSOM) describes, “a diverse and heterogeneous population.”

CSOM always mentions on their website that sex offenders often have cognitive

distortions or pro-offending attitudes that not only justifies their actions, but normalizes it despite
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the offender being aware that they are committing a crime and causing harm to someone. For

example, rape culture in American is often centered around victim blaming and it is almost the

automatic response to find fault in the attacked and what they did to provoke the attacker. With

that framework, a sexual offender can easily dismiss their crime because they deemed that the

woman or man who made eye contact with them from across the room must have wanted it from

the way they locked eyes.

Now, I argue that a toxic representation of a hyper-masculine male is a cognitive

distortion that plays a factor in the sexually violent acts committed by men. This depiction of

masculinity is destructive to any susceptible male because it represents an “ideal.” It is a male

who is not affected by his emotions, is desirable to women, successful, confident, unbothered,

the “cool guy.” We see this image constantly bombarded in popular culture and sets an

unattainable persona for men. While this can lead to anxiety, depression, and other cognitive

disorders that have often been diagnosed in sexual offenders; it is when the image becomes

aggressive that it is then connected to violent acts.

Jeremy Posodas of Austin College has developed two and half weeks of his 14 week long

religious and gender studies course of sex and sexuality on sexual violence prevention. In this

two week span, Posodas presents the phenomenon of toxic masculinity and its effects on sexual

violence in Western culture. Posodas writes in his periodical Teaching the Cause of Rape

Culture: Toxic Masculinity that, “Students need to understand that while rape culture is the

mechanism that channels toxic masculinity into specific, socially legitimized practices of sexual

violence, if we want to eradicate sexual violence, we must transform the apparatuses by which

boys are subjectified into toxically masculine men.” Posodas is suggesting that the deep rooted

issue is the bombardment of the masculine male persona in our society. This persona is not only
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being subjected to men in our society, but also women who then participate in rape culture by

excusing the violent actions of men due to this persona.

In Studying Masculinity and Sexual Assault Across Organize Culture Groups:

Understanding Perpetrators, Michele Harway and Jennifer H. Steel, of Fielding Graduate

School, discuss the theory of gender role strain. They define it as followed, “The gender role

strain theory emphasizes how men “internalize cultural belief systems about masculinity and

gender roles” and embodies the idea that the subcultures to which sexual assault perpetrators

primarily belong have a significant influence over their propensity to commit sexual violence.”

In their study, Harway and Steel analyze three subcultures of masculinity that perpetrate this

gender role strain: military, law enforcement, and professional sports. They question, “whether

the socialization within certain subcultures including its peers, its role models, and its portrayal

by the media reinforces masculinity by endorsing events that exhibit increased aggression,

strength, dominance, and sexual conquests.”

These three subcultures are the epitome of extreme circumstances of the masculine male.

The military and law enforcement are meant to be the protectors and garner respect; however,

with that respect comes an abuse of power. Whether it is the hierarchy of military command, or a

badge, the idea to fight back against or even press charges against a sexual offender who falls

into either or of these subcultures, is too often dismissed. On the offender themselves, they

excuse their behavior (using their position of power to fuel their pro-offending attitude),

proposing that they deserve to commit these acts against women. This behavior is also excused

and constantly fueled by the consistent access to vulnerable or awestruck women in the military

or law enforcement subcultures.

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In professional sports subcultures, aggression is exhibited constantly on the field or on

the court to other athletes. With the normalcy of aggressive behavior, demeanor, and means of

resolving conflicts, Harway and Steel raise the question of “whether the aggressiveness learned

in sport translates to athletes’ behavior in interpersonal relationships.” While Harway and Steel’s

analysis of literature of athletes and sexual violence is mostly that of college students (who make

up only about 3% of a college campus population, they are responsible for roughly 19% of the

reported sexual assaults), one needs to analyze the spectacle that is professional sports.

Professional sport games garner thousands of Americans’ eyes. Add on to that the hand

in hand relationships of alcohol’s involvement in sports, from bars dedicated to sport teams to

advertisement upon advertisement during televised events, to the players themselves being

encourage to participate in camaraderie with drinks after games.

Alcohol is a well-known additive to violent crimes, and in many cases, is a direct

facilitator to sexual violence. The National Partnership on Alcohol Misuse and Crime reports that

40% percent of incarcerated prisoners convicted of a violent crime were under the influence.

Abbey, Zawacki, Buck, Clinton, and McAuslin report that of the 25% of women who have

experienced sexual assault, about 50% of those cases involved consumption of alcohol of the

perpetrator, victim, or both.

The argument is then made that it is not athletes themselves that are likely to become

sexual offenders, but rather, that with an accumulation of a forced identity of masculinity that

comes with being an athlete trying to prove your better than others, and its coalition with

environments that revolve around alcohol consumption, there is often misplaced aggression that

is brought onto a victim. I believe that the issue comes when an athlete, or any person for that
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matter, is incapable of separating aggression and violence from one realm to the actuality of

human relationships.

The cause of sexual violence is never going to be concrete due to the unpredictability of

human beings and their actions. Nor will the causes of sexual violence ever be justified for a

perpetrator. However, to address and (to a degree) prevent further molding of sexually violent

individuals; we must review the manner in which we socialize problematic behaviors into being

the norm. We have to disband the idea of this hyper-masculine male who displays predictive

behavior similar to that of which we note in sexual offenders, because normalizing it has

continued the prevalence in which it appears in the individuals who commit these acts. From a

badge, to a famous name, we cannot continue to excuse toxic masculinity to reinforce aggression

and violence as an accepted form of expression for men.

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References

Abbey, A., Zawacki, T., Buck, P., Clinton, M., & McAuslan, P. (2000). Alcohol and Sexual

Assault. Pubs.niaaa.nih.gov. Retrieved 13 May 2017, from

https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh25-1/43-51.htm

Alcohol and Crime | NPAMC. (2017). Alcoholandcrime.org. Retrieved 13 May 2017, from

http://www.alcoholandcrime.org/issues/alcohol-and-crime/

The Etiology of Sexual Offending Behavior and Sex Offender Typology: An Overview. (2017).

Csom.org. Retrieved 13 May 2017, from http://csom.org/train/etiology/3/3_1.htm

Harway, M., & Steel, J. (2015). Studying masculinity and sexual assault across organizational

culture groups: Understanding perpetrators. Psychology Of Men & Masculinity, 16(4),

374-378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039694

Posodas, J. (2017). Teaching the Cause of Rape Culture: Toxic Masculinity. Journal Of Feminist

Studies In Religion, 33(1), 177. http://dx.doi.org/10.2979/jfemistudreli.33.1.23

Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics | RAINN. (2017). Rainn.org. Retrieved 13 May 2017, from

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence