Editor's Note: Catherine Blankensop is an intern for the City of Bloomington Office of the Mayor under Mayor John Hamilton. This piece was not written on behalf of the Mayor's office and was edited for clarity.
The Indiana Daily Student broke a story Monday outlining allegations that Amanda Barge, a Monroe County commissioner and former Bloomington mayoral candidate, sexually harassed a county contractor for more than a year. Barge then suspended her campaign for mayor.
The story shocked the Bloomington community. And it made it clear to many that anyone can be victims of sexual abuse, and anyone can be an abuser, regardless of gender.
This is an extremely difficult topic to talk about because it can be very complicated and nuanced.
It is first important to recognize that sexual violence disproportionately affects women. One out of three women experience sexual assault in her lifetime compared to one of six men, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. We also live in a society that has an inherent power imbalance that favors men.
In an interview with Vox, Kate Manne, a professor of philosophy at Cornell University and feminist author, talks about her latest book and explains some of these complicated power structures.
She argues that we live “in a man’s world — a historical patriarchy” and that sexism and misogyny are results of this patriarchy. She explains that “sexism is the ideology that supports patriarchal social relations, but misogyny enforces it when there’s a threat of that system going away.”
It’s important to think of the patriarchal system that Manne talks about when talking about issues of sexual violence because the power it creates for men can play a large role in abuse.
Despite this, it is very possible for men to be abused by women. It is alleged to have happened in our small Bloomington community, and it can happen anywhere.
In fact, when doing research for this column, I couldn’t find much about women abusing men: no research, statistics or news articles. It’s more than fair to say that it’s because it happens much less often than the inverse, but it’s also likely that it is far less reported and far less talked about.
The NSVRC also said one in 71 will be raped. But there’s a significant problem with that statistic.
The legal definition of rape, updated by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2012, is, “the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
So it is likely that one in 71 does not account for men who were forced to have vaginal sex. This also means women who have forced vaginal sex on men cannot be charged with rape, only sexual assault.
We need to do better by male victims of sexual violence. Our societal system may favor men, but that does not leave them immune to violence and abuse.
Women can abuse positions of power over men. Barge had power over her victim’s employment as Monroe County commissioner. A female college professor could use her power over a male student’s grades. An older woman could use her age to exploit younger men. Coercion like blackmail can be used, or physical restraint like drugs or weapons.
It is important that we continue to fight gender norms that fuel our sexist society, and it is important that we continue to stand with victims of sexual assault. But it is also important that we begin to expand our inclusion of the victims we are standing with.