October 29th, 1997 to November 4th, 1997

Author Michael Scarce Looks at 'Male Rape'

by Sukie de la Croix

We can sit and argue versions of the Bible until we're blue in the face, but whatever the truth is about the story of Sodom, it's been used by religionists to attack gay men ever since Judeo-Christian morality became the predominant 'school of thought' in the western hemisphere. The Bible bashers would have us believe that the soldiers of Sodom called upon Lot to cast out his two male guests to be raped by the crowd.

Not only has this story stigmatized gay men as being 'morally corrupt' ever since, but it oversimplifies the issue of male rape, giving it the mystical classification of 'taboo,' rather than confronting it as the serious societal problem that it as.

In his new book, Male On Male Rape: The Hidden Toll Of Stigma And Shame, Mich ael Scarce attempts to unravel the complex issues surrounding a subject that is often joked about, and more often trivialized: the resultant feelings of isolation and shame, the risk of HIV, fear of reporting the rape to the police, disturbances in sexual functioning, fear of males, cynicism, anger and rage and a myriad of other relevant topics.

Scarce begins his book with a chilling account of his own rape at Bradley Hall, an undergraduate residence hall at Ohio State University. How he met a man in a gay bar in Columbus, brought him back, only to find himself the victim of a vicious rape: "One yell, one shout would have attracted the attention I needed to stop what was happening," writes Scarce, "But I could not bring myself to cry out. What would my floormates think? They already hated me for being queer, so how might they react if they responded to my cries for help and burst in on that lovely scene-a man on top of me, penetrating me? There was nothing I could do except lay there and go numb?"

It was not until a year later that Scarce came to terms with the fact that he had been raped. He responded to a negative event, by taking a positive step; he took an internship with the university's Rape Education and Prevention Program, finally becoming its coordinator. "I now blame those 30 floormates for my rape as much as the man who assaulted me," he writes, "They created and shaped a space, both actively and through negligence, in which I was gagged, effectively silenced and unable to resist. Their intimidation weakened my spirit, lowered my self-worth, and forced me to appropriate a victim mentality that impeded me from regaining control of my life."

Apart from newspaper articles, mostly dealing with current prison rape cases, which are often homophobic, condescending, or sensational in tone, and academic studies in medical journals, little accessible reading material exists on the subject of male rape. It really is a hidden crime.

Fear and shame of same-sexual contact results in very few cases of male rape being reported, therefore any statistics-and they're thin on the ground-only reflect a small fraction of the number of actual incidents. (The Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault have no statistics on the subject at all.)

After six years of research and interviews with 24 rape survivors, Michael Scarce has written what he readily admits is not a comprehensive study-he does not include the sexual assault of boys and teenage males, or the topic of women raping men-but a book that is intended to open up a dialogue on the subject of adult male-on-male rape.

In this respect the book works, because while reading it I was constantly on the phone to friends, asking "What do you think about male rape?" First reactions were predictably flippant, "You can't rape the willing," one said. Another, with a macho bravado, said, "It doesn't exist, because a man could push another man off."

Digging deeper, I discovered that all of the gay men I talked to, and I include myself in this, admitted to having male rape sexual fantasies, either as the rapist, or the person being raped. My own sexual fantasy is to be raped repeatedly by a group of straight men. So what does that say about me?

One friend posed the question: "If a gorgeous cop stops you on the highway for speeding, and says, 'blow me or you get a ticket.' Normally, you'd blow him anytime, but because he's using his position of power, is that rape? And yet he's giving you a choice."

I asked Michael Scarce what he thought about this hypothetical situation, and he answered with another question: "How do you define rape, and who defines it?"

I then asked him if he had any answers: "No. My intention was not to provide easy answers, but to get people talking about it. Hopefully, men reading this book will reexamine specific moments in their own life. That time I was really, really drunk and I took someone home, was I raped? Or have I ever raped someone?"

I just phoned a friend and read him the above paragraph. "Oh my god!" he said, "Last Friday I brought this guy home who was so drunk he could hardly stand up. I fucked him, then in the morning he couldn't remember anything about it. We then had sex again. Did I rape him that night?"

I don't know.

Male On Male Rape: The Hidden Toll Of Stigma And Shame is a profoundly disturbing book, a 'wake-up call' to all men, both gay and straight, to examine their own sexuality and behavior; it holds up a mirror to the reader and says KNOW THYSELF.

Michael Scarce has opened a can of worms

Send us your feedback!

Site development donated by Benchmark Online Productions.
Web space provided by SUBA.