Thursday next week around 3:15, I will be talking to a class about male survivors. I know there are a lot of things I could talk about but what do you guys think should be the main point?

The class will be a Gender, Sexuality, and Society course based off of sociology.

Hier sacred sage.

Well it seems in This topic Scot gave a pretty good idea of what needs to besaid.

I don't however emvy you in terms of sociology. I had to read a fair amount of sociology for my thesis, and sinse sociology is based on the idea of group interactions, gender sterriotypes, seemed fairly common in the subject, as in fact were the wrong sort of feminist views.

The fact however that your specifically! speaking on male victimization is encouraging, maybe someone in the field of sociology is taking notice?

Myself, I'd personally suggest reminding people that men can be victims as well as abusers (surprising this fact isn't known about academically), that women can be abusers, and that male sterriotypes can be as damaging as female ones might be a good way to go.

of course, this is just a personal suggestion and you might have other thoughts, depending upon how the class works. and your own experience, I just suggest this as a start.

Sacred Sage,

You could talk about statistics (1 in 6 males) and how males aren't recognized in our society as victims, but yet are indeed victimized and how this conflict of gender role and reality of abuse plays out in male survivors struggling to heal themselves. That is, it could prevent males from healing. You could also talk about the societal (addictions, suicides, incarcerations, etc) and individual effects (depression, isolation, shame, etc.) of male sexual abuse and how it is a silent epidemic (pervasive) in society.

Best wishes on what you decide to talk about,

Caz

Thanks guys!

The instructor is from Poland and grew up during the War. She understands about victimization and witnessing tragedies unfold. She is an excellent professor and friend.

Excellent opportunity Sage. I think Caz has nailed it on a general outline for the talk. As a survivor I'm a little hesitant to suggest this, but for those who are outside I think the theme of male victims is appropriate.

One thing the prof might be able to chime in on is that it sometimes takes decades for the victims to even start to come to terms with their trauma (40 years in my case).

Any opp to use media fr the lappy to supplement the talk? (limited pp, vids, etc., since it's more about people than stats)

Is there a Q&A afterwards?

Definitely charged up for this, Sage.

*

This, minus "almost."