Adult male victims of female-perpetrated sexual violence: Australian social media responses, myths and flipped expectations
| Published date | 01 May 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/02697580211048552 |
| Date | 01 May 2022 |
| Author | Andrew Groves,April Loxton |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of Victimology
2022, Vol. 28(2) 191 –214
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/02697580211048552
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1080176IRV0010.1177/02697580221080176International Review of VictimologyBook review
research-article2022
Article
Adult male victims of
female-perpetrated sexual
violence: Australian social
media responses, myths
and flipped expectations
April Loxton
Deakin University, Australia
Andrew Groves
Deakin University, Australia
Abstract
In the era of #metoo, conversations regarding rape and sexual violence have received increased
attention in mainstream media, giving voice to some of the many victims impacted by sexual assault.
Despite the significant social upheaval this movement has given credence to, male victims of
female-perpetrated sexual assault remain largely absent from Australian media. Adherence to
strict representations of masculinity and femininity, often reinforced on social media, has resulted
in cultural omission and problematic characterisations of both offenders and victims. International
research has examined socially-constructed, gendered perceptions; however, Australian literature
remains limited. This study examined what factors influence perceptions of male victims of
female-perpetrated sexual violence, evaluated through Christie’s (1986) Ideal Victim/Offender
framework. This mixed-method study analysed social media users’ comments on incidents of
female-perpetrated sexual assault on men, presented in 28 Facebook posts, across 13 popular
Australian newspapers. The findings identified a tendency of users to question victims’ masculinity,
downplay harms experienced by male victims, or deny victimisation entirely. Furthermore, women
were typecast as ‘fragile nurturers’ who did not have the capacity to offend, rejecting the possibility
of male victims. Conclusions highlight the need for further Australian-based research and practical
support, as male victims are more than simply an online myth.
Keywords
Australia, female perpetrators, male victimisation, sexual violence, social media
Corresponding author:
Andrew Groves, School of Arts and Education, Criminology, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, 3125,
Australia.
Email: andrew.groves@deakin.edu.au
192 International Review of Victimology 28(2)
Introduction
The existence and discourse of male victimisation challenges traditional gender stereotypes gener-
ally, but especially so when victimisation results from female-perpetrated sexual violence (Davies
et al., 2006;Allen-Collinson, 2009; Fisherand Pina, 2013). Not onlydo such actions and experiences
confront long-held social and cultural values and norms, contradicting typical definitions of both
masculinity and femininity, they often lead to diminished victim-reporting, and subsequent support,
due to victims’ intense fears of disbelief, stigma and ostracism (Schippers, 2007; Fisher and Pina,
2013; Davies, 2013). In line with social expectations, female-perpetrated abuse (sexual or physical)
is commonly viewed as ‘less significant in terms of frequency, severity, consequences and impact’
(Allen-Collinson, 2009: 23). This is seemingly reflected within Australian research data, where
female-perpetrated sexual violence constitutes only 5%of all forms of reported sexual offending,
where it should be noted that this figure is inclusive of female-perpetrated violence against women
and children, not just men (Stathopoulos, 2014: 3). Further still, social responses to sexual violence
typically reflect cultural reliance on ‘ideal’ categorisations (Christie,1986) and/or ‘blitz rape scripts’
(Ballman et al., 2016), where experiences that deviate from ‘male perpetrator’ and ‘female victim’
binary descriptors are labelled as disingenuous and subsequently disregarded. Arguably, a conceptual
and ideological duality exists, whereby it is perceived that women cannot rape menand men cannot
be raped by women, which has obvious implications for advocacy and the provision of support for
victims, as well as criminological research.
The 2017 ‘#metoo’ movement has been a powerful driver for the increased awareness of sexual
violence, particularly in online contexts, as well as of the need for timely legislative and criminal
justice responses.This popular form of activism, primarily practised through socialmedia platforms,
initially sought to highlight and address the plight of all victims of sexual violence (Burke, 2018).
That the movement has grown from and inhabited a largely online space (though there have been
physicalprotests and campaigning) is an importantshift not only for knowledgeand understanding of
the contemporary socio-cultural responses to sexual violence, but also for the discipline of crimin-
ology itself. Social media comprises a wide range of diverse online platforms (e.g. Twitter, Face-
book, Instagram, etc.), which serve to ‘facilitate the exchange and dissemination of information and
opinions’ (Komazec and Farmer, 2020: 1; Edosomwan et al., 2011; Freitag et al., 2017). As recent
Australian data has revealed, the majority of Australians use the Internet on a daily basis (84%), of
which 79%use social networking sites, with more than half(59%) accessing social media accounts/
profiles daily and a third (35%) checking these more than five times a day (Sensis, 2017). With the
increased reach, accessibility and immediacy that social media offers, online users can freely share
their opinions, attitudes and assumptions about innumerable topics. Clearly then, social media
commentary is not only of cultural significance, but is also fundamental to criminological study,
with its extensive reach and hyper-connectivity offering a wealth of accessible data on crime and
other social issues(Nagy, 2017; Wood, 2017). As has beenacknowledged (see Weathers et al.,2016;
Komazec and Farmer, 2020), criminological analysis of social media and online behaviour, in
particular, offers researchers insight into public discourse and opinion about crime and criminality.
Specifically, it is understood that online social mediasubstantively shapes how people perceive and
respond to crime, perpetrators and their victims, which as Komazec and Farmer (2020: 1) note, can
result in ‘skewedrepresentations of victims and offenders and, for some, a heightened fearof crime’.
In the contextof #metoo, this creates considerablechallenges for victims,as the easily-accessible and
largely unregulated setting of social media lendsitself to the spread of misinformation,prejudice and
hostility, such as the acceptance of rape myths, gender stereotypes and victim-blaming.
2International Review of Victimology XX(X)
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