Once Again, Women Can Rape Men Too
LatestShould a man have to pay child support if he alleges that his then-girlfriend raped him? As Salon’s Tracy Clark-Flory points out, the story, by his account, is a grim reminder that men can be raped too, no matter how hilarious or implausible the culture finds it.
Kris Bucher says that when he was 17, his on-again-off-again girlfriend Jessica Fuller pinned him down with one arm, slammed her hand over the lock of the car when he tried to get out of it, and, despite his repeated, verbalized lack of consent, raped him. (The two had vowed to abstain after she had a miscarriage.) Afterwards, he and his parents say Fuller admitted she’d forced him into sex in their presence, and Bucher says he called the Sheriff but wasn’t taken seriously. Fuller got pregnant, had the child, and didn’t ask him for help — but when she went on welfare, the state of Michigan ordered him to pay child support. He’s currently fighting it in court.
Bucher’s lawyer says, “I know society does not believe, I think overwhelmingly, that a man can be the subject of an involuntary sexual battery. And that is unfortunate because my client is.” Clark-Flory notes that “much as woman can experience lubrication and even achieve orgasm during rape, men’s physiological response can act independent of consent or desire — and in neither case does it make it any less rape-y,” but that female-on-male rape is still seen as so implausible as to be hilarious. She points out 40 Days and 40 Nights and Wedding Crashers; we’d add two recent examples to the list.
Memo to Hollywood and anyone else who needs telling: Men can be raped too, and it isn’t funny.
When The Rapist Is A She [Salon]
Related: He Says He Said No To Sex, Now He Says No To Child Support [Tampa Bay]
Image via Robert Adrian Hillman/Shutterstock.com.