Last night's class was very informative and interesting. The first hour and a half we learned about how to talk specifically with boys and male adolescents.
Sexual abuse affects them very differently than girls because the majority of perpetrators are also male. So in addition to the trauma, humiliation, fear and anger one naturally goes through - these boys also wonder if this will make them homosexual, or maybe make them think they are homosexual because they experienced pleasure.
IMPORTANT FACT: Our bodies are designed to respond to pleasure. As difficult as it is to comprehend, even in the midst of a violent act such as rape or molestation, the victim may experience pleasure physically. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THEY ENJOY IT. It is a physical response to stimulus. They can be crying, angry and hurt and still be aroused.
Obviously in boys this is a more obvious response. This confuses them and makes them feel sickened with themselves for having that reaction physically while being violated. Its one of the thing that makes it difficult for them to report.
The average age for a boy to be sexually abused is between 6 - 14. At this age boys have an entirely different set of fears in addition to the fears that the girls have because of the same sex issues involved.
Its really very sad because our justice system does not seem to have the same sympathy for boys as girls....that is UNACCEPTABLE...and people are working to change it.
I will finish this later.
1 comment:
My ex-brother in law was molested by a priest at the school he attended in Equador. It ruined his whole life. None of his family even knew he was gay until after he died, but when I was told it made a lot of sense to me in the way that he lived his life. He died at age 39 of cirrhosis of the liver. How sad. His priest is probably still offending...
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