Turchik Myths About Male Rape Summary

Mark A. Whatelys article, Gender Differences in Attributions of Blame for Male Rape Victims examines if gender differences exist in blaming a male rape victim and if any theories of victim blame can be applied to the study. In order to collect the data, an intervening cognitive task, and a scenario describing a young man who was arrested outside of a bar where a fight occurred and who was later raped in a police holding cell and the Belief in a Just World Scale were used. It was also predicted that male participants would be more likely to blame the victim than female participants. The results of the study mirrored that of the predictions. Men placed more blame on the victim for the assault than women. The hypothesis and findings in this source is relevant to the research question in my

Turchik’s article Myths About Male Rape: A Literature Review explores the ways in which mainstream media has satirized male rape and inadvertently created several myths concerning the topic that are widely regarded to be true today. The article further examines how the media promotes heavily stereotyped views of male rape with male rape exclusive to certain people and occurring only in certain areas. Further discussed is the idea that male rape is often depicted as a humorous topic in mainstream media which further promotes male rape ideologies and encouraging the belief that male rape is a humorous topic and something that can and should be taken lightly. Furthermore, Turchik discusses how awareness towards male rape in the media has increased, however, coverage largely portrays stereotypical views of male rape, male rape as consensual rather than forceful, male rape as an exclusive issue towards homosexuals and alleged male victims as liars. The hypothesis as well as the findings provide a solid foundation to my literature review as they provide proof that the acceptance of male rape myths is a very common trend among the general public, media and law