“I Feel Permanently Traumatized By It”: Physical and Emotional Impacts Reported by Men Forced to Penetrate Women in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Whilst there is a growing body of empirical and theoretical research on men's experiences of sexual violence, particularly when perpetrated by other men (see e.g. Adbullah-Khan, 2008; Walker, Archer, & Davies, 2005), the issue of female-to-male sexual violence, and in particular forced-to-penetrate (FTP) cases, has largely been excluded from the research agenda. This article analyses quantitative and qualitative data on the physical and emotional impacts on men who have been FTP a woman. This data comes from the first empirical study on this issue in the UK. Such cases involve a man being FTP a woman either orally, vaginally, or anally with his penis, and without his consent. The term FTP is used here because women cannot be convicted of rape as principal offenders in the UK. The definitions of rape found in the three legal jurisdictions of the UK (England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), all require penile penetration of the victim by the perpetrator. Consequently, only men can be convicted of rape as principal offenders, with women as secondary offenders, i.e. accomplices. Where a woman forces a man to penetrate her, she will be charged with a lesser offence, for example in England and Wales this would be 'causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent' (discussed in detail later in the article). Before proceeding, it is worth stating that despite assumptions that a man physically cannot be FTP a woman without his consent, it is, in fact, biologically possible for this to occur. Indeed, research has consistently reported that men can obtain and sustain erections even where they are not sexually aroused and/or are experiencing negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, or terror (Sarrel & Masters, 1982, p. 118). Therefore, sexually responding to a woman's advances or touch "is not necessarily indicative of [a man's] pleasure or consent" (Fisher & Pina, 2013, p. 57). It is possible that such arousal is unwanted and simply reflects a physiological reaction to stimulation.

The Assessment of Forced Penetration: A Necessary and Further Step Toward Understanding Men’s Sexual Victimization and Women’s Perpetration

“…Although the items used in this study demonstrate initial evidence of validity, further evidence is needed as is evidence of reliability. Given Weare’s (2018b) findings regarding the traumatic impact of forced penetration, further research is also needed on the health impact of these experiences. Our findings are in contrast to the CDC report as we suggest that the prevalence rate of women’s forced penetration victimization is above zero—further research is needed to confirm that women do experience this.…”

“…Not only does this strategy underestimate and discount men's experiences of victimization, this also systematically obscures women's perpetration. Yet, research suggests that this experience is traumatizing for men and may be an underrecognized form of violence against heterosexual men by heterosexual women (Brousseau et al, 2011;Fisher & Pina, 2013;Weare, 2018b;Weiss, 2010). However, it is notable that although initial research suggests forced penetration victimization may be more common for heterosexual men, forced penetration can occur in any circumstance and with many combinations of people with varying gender and sexual identities.…”

The Prevalence of Sexual Violence Perpetration in Sexual Minority Men: A Secondary Analysis of Systematic Review Data

“…In general, men's experiences of sexual violence victimization are under-researched (Davies, 2002). Until recently-and similar to current United Kingdom law (Weare, 2021)-most federal definitions of sexual violence in the United States excluded certain experiences that are more common for people with penises, such as being made to penetrate someone (Stemple & Meyer, 2014). Made to penetrate victimization may be particularly relevant to understanding bisexual men's experiences, as some data suggests this behavior is perpetrated almost exclusively by heterosexual women (Anderson et al, 2020;Weare, 2018).…”

Sexual Violence as a Form of Abuse in Men’s Experiences of Female-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence

“…Study 2 (see Weare, 2018aWeare, , 2018b focused on male participants' most recent experience of being FTP a woman. The term FTP is used here to describe a man being FTP, with his penis and without his consent, a woman's vagina, anus, or mouth.…”

“…Although men's experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) within heterosexual relationships have been considered (e.g., see Archer, 2000;Hines et al, 2007), the scope of this research is much more limited, with very little attention given to men's experiences of sexual violence within this context. This article adds to the research on men's experiences of IPV perpetrated by women by bringing together and analyzing data gathered from two empirical studies in the United Kingdom-one exploring men's experiences of being forced-topenetrate (FTP) women (Weare, 2018a(Weare, , 2018b and another investigating men's experiences of female-perpetrated IPV (Bates, 2019b(Bates, , 2019c. Drawing upon and analyzing the data from these studies, this article explores links between sexual violence and other forms of abuse experienced by men in heterosexual IPV relationships.…”