At first, I was marvelled to see the title “Male Rape”, because normally we don’t hear about that in the news. Saloni Mann enlighted me and made me think it isn’t just in India where this happens, his home. It also happens in the United States, even New York.

You always hear how a man did this to a woman, how a man abused a woman, how men are always accused in court, but never did I hear about a case where a woman hurts a male. And the women get punished. Yes, men raping women is disgusting and should never be condoned, but then again all rape is disgusting. All abuse and injustice and unfair trials are disgusting. When I look on Instagram, I see posts where women actually get less to no time in jail when they hurt a male. And when one starts to hurt a women, they get sentenced to a lifetime in jail. Because men are pictured to be so strong and are always the bad guys. How could this innocent women hurt him?

We’re always fighting for equality, saying we want for women and men to be equal in society. It is not equality when one gender gets a harsher punishment for commiting the same heinous crime. Rape, the exact definition, forcing someone to have sex with you. If the male doesn’t give consent or feels uncomfortable, no one really seems to pay attention. They might not feel comfortable and not say it because it would be “weird”. Sometimes they are verbal but the womam keeps going. The next day, his buddies would say “Oh you had sex, why are you complaining?” Why on Earth would he complain? He wasn’t ready. He’s traumatized now, so we just let by gones be by gones?

And then there’s a women slapping a man and a man slapping a women. Most would say the second one seems more violent. Even in pre-school, I was told it was okay for a girl to hit a boy but never okay for a boy to hit a girl. This brought me to think, it’s the toxic masculinity society pressures onto young teenage boys. At an early age, we watch movies where boys aren’t portrayed as weak and unable to have as much emotion as a girl. How many movies are there where the girl always cares more than the boy about a date?

Now what on Earth is a teenage girl who has never experienced rape or assualt and isn’t even a boy, talking about these issues?  I talk to my guy friends who said they haven’t cried in years when I know that’s not true. I saw them cry a few weeks ago to themselves, when they think no one’s watching, but they don’t admit it because society frowns upon it. Imagine not letting yourself be open about emotions.

Furthermore there’s their toxic relationships with manipulative girlfriends who pressure them into doing things they don’t want to. They choose not to tell them off because it would make them monsters and abnormal. Just be nice and kiss and try to be the “ideal boyfriend”. Additionally there’s other standards. Males are supposed to be good at sex. They need to be athletic and strong, and on social media, even Tik Tok, an innocent app, girls swoon over the “baseball boys” while others get no attention. Children, ages 5 and up have this implanted in their mind at such a young age.

Many of the older shows I watch, boys seem to rarely cry unless they’re gay, as if that has anything to do with it. It’s nice to see in certain shows such as The Office and even Skam France that certain main characters can express their feelings. As a society, we have come a long way from men always being the breadwinners and blatant sexism. Nevertheless, it is important to remember with the fight of equality, comes equality for all genders because yes women matter, but so do men. All of us, as a collective human race are lifted up to matter.