Teenage Boys - Helping an Endangered Species

I'm not convinced that teen boys are any less capable of hearing, listening, and responding to their parents than their sisters, but that is in part the argument Steven Stosny is making in this entry on his Psychology Today blog, Anger in the Age of Entitlement. 

Teenage Boys

Helping an Endangered Species

Published on July 26, 2014 by Steven Stosny, Ph.D. in Anger in the Age of Entitlement

In my clinical experience, the biggest complaint I hear from parents of teenage boys is that they are angry.

Teenage girls get angry, too, of course, but they tend to be more amenable to processing emotions and talking them through, which at least gives parents a little more leverage in dealing with them. The testosterone surges that boys experience blunts fear and disinhibits impulses, making them more susceptible to dangerous behaviors that both invoke and result from anger.

Teenage boys need a lot of structure. Both parents need to know where he is and what he’s doing at all times. Don’t fall into the “You don’t trust me,” trap. The issue isn’t trust but a realistic assessment of the dangerous world that adolescents must negotiate with limited pre-frontal cortex development. Before 18, a child does not have sufficient articulation in the judgment and regulatory areas of the brain to be able to see possible consequences of behavior under the stress of powerful impulses. It’s a dangerous combination, even when substances are not at all involved – increased impulsivity with diminished regulatory capacity.

Compassionate parents focus on the long-term well-being of the child, rather than the momentary ego boost of feeling “trusted.” The trick is getting them out of the defensive and into the improve mode of the brain. A good parental rejoinder to “You don’t trust me,” is, “I don’t trust myself enough to know that you will be safe and well without knowing where you are and what you’re doing. So what can you do so that you will have some freedom without me having to worry so much?”

In particular angry teenagers need to learn that:

• They are part of a family and community which require some emotional investment – in small ways helping the family (chores) and occasional volunteer work in the community
• Respect for other people’s rights and property
• Money is a resource that must be managed responsibly.

In general, boys do not auditory-process as well as girls, even when they're not angry. (They hear almost as well, but don’t interpret the meaning of the spoken word as efficiently, not without other sensory modalities engaged.) If you want to give your son instructions or say anything important:

• Make eye contact and try to touch him while you speak (two or three sensory modalities work better than one)
• If detail is important, ask him to repeat what you said
• Use short sentences and give him a chance to respond before going on (never lecture).

It’s easy for boys to get into the habit of automatically tuning out familiar voices, a habit that will cause them serious problems in future close relationships.Habits are much easier to prevent than to alter.

Responsibility

The world is cruel to the irresponsible.

Kids are not naturally responsible –parents or painful circumstances must teach them. Responsibility can be learned by modeling – responsible parents enjoy a better chance of having responsible children – but it also must be taught deliberately. Children can learn responsibility relatively painlessly up to about 13. After that, the life lessons that teach responsibility – mostly in the form of social sanctions and punishments - become more painful. Teaching responsibility to children is one of the most compassionate things parents can do for them.

The key to teaching responsibility is to make sure that your children understand this crucial fact: Power, privilege, and responsibility go together. When responsibility is high, so are the other two. And when it is low, so are the other two.

Teenagers, especially boys, feel powerless a lot of the time. They need to learn that they have the power to affect what happens to them by behaving responsibly. And they need to know in advance exactly how much power and privilege they will lose for specific irresponsible behaviors. That is really the way of the world. When you behave irresponsibly, say speeding or cheating on your taxes, you know in advance what the penalty will be.

Finally, children learn emotion regulation principally by modeling, not by what parents tell them. Like all mammals, the juveniles learn by watching the adults. There is a same sex bias to modelling – the boys watch the men more closely and the girls watch the women more closely, but they watch both parents to learn how to regulate emotions. Anger is an attribution of blame. If parents are blamers, children, especially high testosterone boys, are more likely to have anger problems. (Testosterone doesn't cause anger but it amplifies it considerably.) It's crucial for parents to model responsibility in all that they do, including owning their own mistakes, especially those that relate to disputes with their children.

For more help, see Compassionate Parenting

Related Links

• Third High School Suicide in Newton, MA—my Hometown
• A Conversation About Girls and Sex
• Teenagers With ADHD: the Growing Need For Transitional Care
• What the Teenage Brain Can Teach Us About Ourselves

PsychCentral reports on a new study from the American Journal of Men’s Health that reveals teenage boys are changing in ways most would never have predicted - they are choosing more secure and honest relationships. But to keep things within the realm of the familiar, they want these relationships within a sexual relationship. Hormones and heart - a big step forward for teen boys.

More Teen Boys Look for Relationships, Not Flings

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 16, 2014


A new study determines teenage boy’s desire intimacy and sex in the context of a meaningful relationship and value trust in their partnerships.

The finding may be a surprise to those who view teenage males as testosterone-laden aggressors.

Investigators from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health believe the study provides insights into the development of masculine values in adolescence, an area that has been understudied.

The researchers have published their findings online in the American Journal of Men’s Health.

For the study, researchers studied 33 males who ranged from 14 to 16 years of age to learn more about how their romantic and sexual relationships developed, progressed, and ended. The participants were recruited during routine medical visits at a community adolescent clinic that serves low-income, predominately African-American adolescents.

The group’s sexual history began earlier than the national average, putting them at increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases.

Participants were asked open-ended questions about relationships and sex, such as desirable partner characteristics, intimacy, closeness, and trust.

“Prevailing values in our culture suggest adolescent males want sex, not relationships. However, values and behaviors related to sex and relationships are likely more complex than typically portrayed,” said first author David Bell, M.D., M.P.H.

“In fact, very few of the participants described sex as the main goal of opposite-sex interactions and relationships.”

The study advances an understanding of adolescent males’ early relationships in two significant ways.

First, close relationships were important to the participants. Second, they desired intimate and caring relationships, expressed vulnerability and dependence, and placed great importance on trust in relationships.

Few participants described trying to trick or talk a partner into having sex, and few evidenced pride and boastfulness about numbers of sexual conquests. An area of vulnerability expressed by the males was the lack of knowledge about sex and concerns about their own capacity to sexually perform.

These findings starkly contrast with descriptions of older, sexually experienced adolescent males, according to Bell, in which older adolescents consistently endorse the belief that relationships should be focused around sex, an avoidance of intimacy, and the treatment of females as sex objects.

“Our sample was primarily lower-income African-American adolescent males and the results, while not generalizable, are transferrable to similar populations of adolescent males,” noted Bell, who is also medical director of New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Family Planning Clinic/Young Men’s Clinic.

Investigators will now study the method by which early adolescent masculine beliefs evolve over time toward more predominant masculine beliefs.

These findings can assist clinicians to better address young men’s sexual health needs and incorporate an understanding of adolescents’ developing masculinity into health promotion.

* Source: Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health
* Happy teenage couple photo by shutterstock.

Natascha Yogachandra - Teaching Positive Masculinity

This is an interesting recent article from The Atlantic on how the effort to prevent sexual assaults is now (finally) being directed at men and boys - a process of teaching "positive masculinity."

Teaching Positive Masculinity

Health advocates are engaging men in sexual assault prevention, challenging the negative aspects of traditional manhood.

Natascha Yogachandra May 14 2014

Dean Courtney Robinson leads a session with students (Natascha Yogachandra)

School is out on a Wednesday and the dean of students' office at Facing History High School is full, but these kids aren't here for detention. Dean Courtney Robinson, who has thick arms covered with tattoos and hair pulled back into a braided bun, looks over the room as high school boys shuffle in and out. Some wear sweatshirts with hoods pulled floppily over their heads; others wear navy polos embroidered with a special insignia: tiny hands clasped around a globe.

They chat, complain, and tease one another until precisely 1:35 p.m., when Robinson ushers out the hangers-on while those in the polos plop into seats for a meeting of the Human United Strength Organization, or HUSO. The conversation topics range from rap music to Malcolm X but the subtext always centers on the meaning of masculinity.

"All right, guys," Robinson begins. "Let's check in."

A senior named Devante Moore usually talks about basketball. He speaks faster and faster as he becomes angrier and angrier. Apparently, this year's coach isn't his favorite. John Susana, a freshman, mentions in a mumble that his grades are good, and his small audience claps for his success.

Room 227 is a safe place. One boy shares that his favorite Christmas gift was a hug from his mom. It's a supportive place. Robinson listens intently to the students' problems and responds with short suggestions for nonviolent solutions. It's a male place, a haven for these high-school boys to talk about the things they ordinarily would find difficult to air in public.

They call it the HUSO Mentoring Group, or HMG, an after-school offshoot of the HUSO umbrella organization, which Robinson established at Facing History in Hell's Kitchen. He hopes to see his group replicated in more city schools, even though there are already a number of similar male-oriented clubs operating under other leadership across the United States.

The purpose of these programs is to give boys the chance to rethink maleness, and to change the way men treat women and each other. Moore, the one who always brings up basketball, says that the group isn't for the weak-minded. "This is for people who got strong minds; who are willing to step up to the plate and really become a young man."

Organizers say the construct works once the young men decide to participate. Getting them in the door and then finding the money to keep the doors open are often the two biggest challenges.

* * *

When Robinson started his organization, he did not know he would become part of a much larger movement that has been working for the past 40 years to engage men in the prevention of violence against women. Mentoring for him started at his home in Harlem when he was just a boy. His mother kept the front door open for any child in need, and those who came also looked informally to Robinson for advice. He now tells his club members that they're walking examples of respectful male students, ones who choose conversation over clenched fists.

The first such experiments emerged in the late-1960s and early-1970s during the second wave of the feminist movement, when male activists realized the positive impact of their support in the battle for women's rights.

Termed "anti-sexists," these men supported the rights of their female partners and initially seemed to be little more than a weak and scattered army without provisions or direction. But after the First National Conference on Men and Masculinity in 1975, structure soon followed, resulting in the establishment of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism.

As gender studies gained credibility as an academic discipline around the same time, some scholars of feminist theory began to develop a new focus, known as masculinity studies. Dr. Ronald Levant played a significant role in the development of masculinity ideology, something he defines as "an individual's internalization of cultural belief systems and attitudes toward masculinity and men's roles."

In 1992, he and his colleagues created the Male Role Norms Inventory, which measures adherence to seven norms of the Western masculinity ideology: Avoidance of Femininity, Fear and Hatred of Homosexuals, Self-Reliance, Aggression, Achievement/Status, Non-Relational Attitudes Toward Sex, and Restrictive Emotionality. Research influenced by Levant's inventory has since revealed that men who embrace more traditional Western masculine ideology are reluctant to discuss condom use with their partners, have less satisfactory relationships, and harbor attitudes that often lead to the sexual harassment of women.

So instead of putting resources into warning women about dark streets and risqué clothing, which unfairly burdens women with assault prevention, advocates for female victims of sexual abuse, such as Lina Juarbe Botella, realize that their primary focus should be on changing the behavior of abusive men. "Women cannot be safe," Botella says, "until men know how to behave." 

Tony Porter and Ted Bunch founded A Call to Men in 2002 after being heavily involved in social justice activism for several years. Botella, the organization's training director, said that the two founders "meet men where they're at physically and emotionally," to encourage them to act as positive role models for their communities. But the two men also acknowledge the debt they owe to the women like Botella's predecessors, who came before them as workers for the same cause.

Botella admitted that she originally had difficulty accepting men as partners in the field of female advocacy. But her current focus on prevention has taught her how to embrace their presence.

"I can't take any credit for it, but Tony and Ted had a lot of wisdom on how to be with men, all types of men, from the barbershop to the boardroom. This is really a men's issue," she added. "We need to engage men so that we can ensure a collective liberation."

A Call to Men's mission goes beyond working with men of violence to include community leaders, fathers, brothers, and uncles. "If I have my arms stretched out open to symbolize all the men in our society, a small percentage of them are abusers," Botella explained. "We particularly focus on men who are on the other side, who are on the line, who might stop those jokes or [help] create a society without confrontation." When someone shares a sexist joke by the office water cooler, A Call to Men wants male bystanders to shut it down before he gets to the punchline.

Jamie Utt, who describes himself as a diversity and inclusion consultant, travels around the United States to speak at schools about positive sexuality, bullying prevention, and student leadership. "So much about toxic masculinity is all about hoping the world doesn't see how hard you're trying."

"I think that we can motivate people to act," he said over Skype from his home in Minnesota, "but it so often comes from a place of charity, you know? We're trying to motivate men to change masculinity for women, but then it's this paternalistic sort of charity versus trying to get men to change masculinity because of their personal investment in it and their relationships."

Utt knows well there are no gold medals or blue ribbons for advocacy work. He said he just wants men to realize the importance of engaging with their partners and responding to their needs. That way, they can help build communities in which all members feel safe, and masculinity is inclusive and not violent.

Carlos Andrés Gómez shares a similar message. He came to realize the negative consequences of most traditionally masculine behavior through a series of shallow relationships, fights with his father, and losses both personal and material. Already an HBO Def Jam poet, actor, and public speaker, he added author to that list in 2012 with his book Man Up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood. In it, he writes about renouncing his identity as a guy known for liking to pick a fight and then taking up another as a poet—"a journey to becoming a man, a different kind of man, a man who lives and moves and acts outside of the predetermined boundaries of masculinity," he says in the book.

"I mean, so much about toxic masculinity is all about hoping the world doesn't see how hard you're trying," he said. "Whether it's a guy rocking 28-inch rims, or a guy outside of a party with his shirt ripped off, beating his chest, yelling at the top of his lungs, or a guy bragging how big his dick is—it's all about this performance. It's all a performance to hope the world doesn’t see that there’s a little boy in there who’s shaking and scared and hurting."

The topic of privilege repeatedly came up during our discussion—the privilege society confers on men, the privilege society ascribes to being white or sometimes even just appearing to be white, as in the case of the blue-green-eyed Gómez. He prides himself on being able to walk into a room and completely disorient those he encounters. Gómez is well-built; his large shoulders and arms signal days spent at the gym. He "plays up" his masculinity when he walks into a school, "very much by design," he assures me, but when he delivers emotional poems on stage, he leaves tears on his cheeks. Much in the way that Robinson tries to reshape masculinity in Room 227, Gómez does so when he performs in front of an audience. The two men may have different approaches, but they work toward the same goal in safe, private spaces.

Teaching young men to value the models of maleness that men like Utt, Gómez, and Robinson are forging seems to be easier in a room full of strangers than it is in the locker room or at home. Gómez recalled an expression he says he heard somewhere once: "You know, it's like anybody can confront an enemy, but it takes a true hero to confront a friend."

He told the story of a recent trip to Alabama where the men he met represented what he calls "the front lines of the battle" to change the way men think about their masculinity. Gómez says he prefers to speak at a place like this where, by the end of the session, a "pretty homophobic construction worker" was in tears talking about his son. To Gómez, watching that man's transformation in the space of a one-hour meeting is "more revolutionary and more meaningful to me than 30 people who identify as activists" parroting what they already believe. Online forums have a special appeal because they provide anonymity that gives guys the chance to be curious in private.

And those venues have become virtual as well as physical. Online forums have a special appeal because they provide anonymity that gives guys the chance to be curious in private. Blogs like Masculinities 101, MasculinityU, and Higher Unlearning have emerged as equivalents to Robinson's classroom. They encourage young men to debate, ask questions, and learn about new definitions of masculinity.

Twitter and Facebook generate numerous conversations in which postings fling around buzzwords such as "pro-feminism," "healthy masculinity" and "positive sexuality," where male advocates tackle the issues of street harassment and sexual abuse with a keyboard.

Emiliano Diaz De Leon wishes that he had social media when he started working in the field of advocacy. His reach would have been larger, he said, to help educate young boys like himself. When Diaz De Leon was a teenager, he confessed to being violent toward women he dated and said that there had been acts of abuse in his own family. He wasn't aware of the male support group at his high school and was surprised when the school counselor referred him to join after he acknowledged his need for help. Those early experiences led him to the job he now holds as men’s engagement specialist at the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault. Although not everyone who comes to be passionate about this kind of advocacy starts because of an early intervention, many do, and he thinks the existence of such groups is a plus.

"I think if we can get men to begin to do the work that early, that absolutely has an impact on their ability to continue doing the work as adult men."

Diaz De Leon became the first children's male advocate at SafePlace, the women's shelter that was his club's sponsor, after having participated in his own high-school group. Plenty of men had provided services to the organization—making repairs to the building and such—but none before Diaz De Leon had volunteered to work with the shelter's clients.

"It was really the women, both the leadership at SafePlace and in the shelter, who took a risk, who both mentored me and challenged me and held me accountable," he said. While some women were receptive to his presence, others had a hard time with it. "They had experienced a tremendous amount of violence from men who looked like me."

He felt the weight of being the first positive male role model to which most of the children had ever been exposed.

"It really forces you, every day, to think about your behavior, language, the way that you walk, the way that you talk, the way that you are around the people in the shelter," he said.

* * *

One afternoon at the meeting in Room 227, the group starts to argue about the value of money. Sentences overlap and the boys grab at any second of silence to shout out their opinions. As they debate, Robinson listens. He waits for the right moment to jump in and when he does, some of the boys are too involved in conversation to hear him. "Yo yo yo, one mic, one mic," a few call out. It's a phrase used often by the students during meetings to avoid interruptions. The rest stop to give their mentor the floor. Robinson doesn't have to ask for their respect; he's earned it.

"I've had teachers that don't come from the same type of environment as these kids, and they're like, 'Wow, Courtney, how do you do that? You ask them to do something and they do it!'"

It's simple, he says. He doesn't dictate; he explains. When discussion centers on the words "female" and "bitch," Robinson doesn't respond aggressively when a student says that he only uses "bitch" because sometimes "she acts like one." Instead, he puts the word into perspective, asking the boy how he would feel if that word was used to describe his mother or sister.

"Regardless of how you feel about her, somebody loves her," Robinson reminds the student. "And there isn't anything you can say to justify how you're treating her." They listen.

The group's members also know that when Robinson was asked to leave Facing History and become the New York supervisor for Men Can Stop Rape, he turned the offer down to stay with them. This is why: "Me seeing y'all and being here to support you all [to] graduate and move forward and be able to deal with your problems, and help you all make it through and give you all advice means more to me than whatever dollar amount they were going to give me."

"That's love," one of the students says. And the rest clap.

Somehow this is exactly how I remember my early teen years.

Teen Boys Losing Virginity Earlier And Earlier, Report Teen Boys

Published on Apr 29, 2014


A shocking new study that asked teen boys about their sexual habits reveals that they are all having sex all the time and are really, really good at having it.

Male Rape Is NOT Hilarious

Via Jezebel - a challenging video and a nice response from Mark Shrayber. The following text accompanies to video on YouTube"

Published on Mar 26, 2014
Warning: There will be triggers for some viewers but, if you watch, please watch the whole thing before passing judgment.

Written and Performed by Andrew Bailey
Camera: Justin Carter

This is the recording of a monologue originally performed at the Atomic Vaudeville Cabaret in June of 2012. | www.baileylaughs.com | atomicvaudeville.wix.com/atomic-vaudevil­le

It's a little challenging to watch, but if you do watch, stay until the end.

This Video Brilliantly Skewers the Idea That Male Rape is Hilarious

Mark Shrayber


When this video was first sent to me, it took me several minutes to bring myself to watch it. The screenshot on YouTube is of a smiling, anxious-looking male in his 20s and I braced myself for a ten minute defense of the use of rape jokes in comedy. What I saw was much more heartbreaking.

In only two minutes, actor and writer Andrew Bailey takes you on an emotional roller coaster with his painful monologue. Bailey introduces himself as Will and immediately launches into a defense of why rape is hilarious (but only when it happens to males). And about ten seconds after that, the monologue takes a very real turn when Will breaks away from a defense of how funny Adam Sandler is to discuss the fact that Lynndie Englund, one of the 11 soldiers convicted for the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, wasn't a monster, she was a comic genius. And then Will drops a bombshell: He was molested at 13 by a teacher who was not a pedophile, but a woman. And it was awesome, because he'd always wanted to have sex and here he was doing it with a trusted adult.

Despite its short duration, the video is difficult to watch in one sitting. Even knowing that this is a monologue and may not be based on personal experience doesn't make it any easier because the experience Will describes is the experience of many. Just watching Will's eyes as he explains that what happened to him wasn't rape ("it was statutory") and how good it felt physically is painful. And it gets even harder when he discusses the reaction of others and tries to convince himself that everything is all right, but it's not.

An adult taking advantage of a child's trust will always take an emotional toll. This is true no matter how hard the victim tries to tell themselves that they wanted it (especially if the victim is socially pressured to want sex). The video is an excellent addition to the discussion of rape humor and the problem of sexual violence against males. Hopefully this video will challenge flippant attitudes common toward rape and particularly statutory rape so that we can have a serious discussion about how to help victims and help prevent this serious crime.

Coerced Sex Not Uncommon for Young Men, Teenage Boys

The stereotype is of the horny teenage boy coercing a girl into having sex with him. Turns out that this stereotype, like so many others, is not quite so true. 43% of high school age and young college men reported being coerced into sexual relations, 95% of them by a female acquaintance.

Coerced sex not uncommon for young men, teenage boys, study finds

March 25, 2014
American Psychological Association

Summary:
A large proportion of teenage boys and college men report having been coerced into sex or sexual behavior, according to research. A total of 43 percent of high school boys and young college men reported they had an unwanted sexual experience and of those, 95 percent said a female acquaintance was the aggressor, according to the study.

A large proportion of teenage boys and college men report having been coerced into sex or sexual behavior, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. 

A total of 43 percent of high school boys and young college men reported they had an unwanted sexual experience and of those, 95 percent said a female acquaintance was the aggressor, according to a study published online in the APA journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity.

"Sexual victimization continues to be a pervasive problem in the United States, but the victimization of men is rarely explored," said lead author Bryana H. French, PhD, of the University of Missouri. "Our findings can help lead to better prevention by identifying the various types of coercion that men face and by acknowledging women as perpetrators against men."

Of 284 U.S. high school and college students who responded to a survey about unwanted sexual encounters, 18 percent reported sexual coercion by physical force; 31 percent said they were verbally coerced; 26 percent described unwanted seduction by sexual behaviors; and 7 percent said they were compelled after being given alcohol or drugs, according to the study. Half of the students said they ended up having intercourse, 10 percent reported an attempt to have intercourse and 40 percent said the result was kissing or fondling.

Being coerced into having sexual intercourse was related to risky sexual behaviors and more drinking among the victims, and students who were sexually coerced while drunk or drugged showed significant distress, according to the findings. However, having unwanted sex did not appear to affect the victims' self-esteem. "It may be the case that sexual coercion by women doesn't affect males' self-perceptions in the same way that it does when women are coerced. Instead it may inadvertently be consistent with expectations of masculinity and sexual desire, though more research is needed to better understand this relationship," French said.

The type and frequency of sexual coercion varied according to the victims' ethnicity. Asian-American students reported significantly fewer sexual coercion experiences compared with the other groups. Whites reported a significantly greater proportion of coercion that resulted in attempted sex compared to multiracial victims. In the written descriptions, significantly more Latinos reported sexual coercion, at 40 percent compared with 8 percent of Asian-Americans, 19 percent of whites and 22 percent of African-American students.

The study participants consisted of 54 high school teens and 230 college students, ages 14 to 26. High school students completed the surveys on paper in the classroom. College students completed them electronically or in the classroom. Among the high school students, 42 percent were white, 17 percent black, 15 percent Asian-American, 15 percent Latino and 11 percent multiracial. The college students were 46 percent white, 21 percent black, 18 percent Asian-American, 10 percent Latino and 5 percent multiracial.

To differentiate sexual coercion from possible incidents of child abuse, the survey instructed students not to include experiences with family members. Examples of coercion included "My partner threatened to stop seeing me" for verbal; "My partner encouraged me to drink alcohol and then took advantage of me" for substance; "My partner threatened to use or did use a weapon" for physical; and "My partner has tried to interest me by sexually touching but I was not interested" for seduction. For additional information, researchers also asked participants to describe in writing a time they felt sexually coerced. The participants also responded to several commonly used psychological assessments to measure their psychological functioning, distress and risky behaviors.

The findings revealed a need for more scientific study of the thin line between sexual seduction and sexual coercion, the authors wrote. "While not typically addressed in sexual violence research, unwanted seduction was a particularly pervasive form of sexual coercion in this study, as well as peer pressure and a victim's own sense of an obligation. Seduction was a particularly salient and potentially unique form of coercion for teenage boys and young men when compared to their female counterparts," French said.

Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by American Psychological Association. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:
Bryana H. French, Jasmine D. Tilghman, Dominique A. Malebranche. (2014, Mar 17). Sexual Coercion Context and Psychosocial Correlates Among Diverse Males. Psychology of Men & Masculinity; 15(2). DOI: 10.1037/a0035915

A Third of Young Men Have Suffered from Body Dysmorphic Disorder

The number of young males dealing with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) has increased greatly in the decade or so I have been watching the statistics. I prefer to use the BDD terminology because not all of the young males suffering from this issue should be lumped into the category of anorexia nervosa (what the authors of the article are calling manorexia).

Some of these young men are healthy, but they become obsessed with looking like a male fitness model, such as those on the cover of Men's Health.

We are screwing up our boys now the ways we have been screwing up our girls for the past several decades.

A third of young men have suffered from 'manorexia' - either by purging or abusing drugs - because they hate their appearance

• Eating disorders are a growing problem among teenage boys, say doctors
• May have a traditional eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia
• Or they may abuse drugs or muscle-building supplements
• One in every 10 cases of an eating disorder occurs in men, figures suggest

By Jenny Hope Medical Correspondent
PUBLISHED: 6 November 2013

Almost one in three young men have gone to extremes, such as making themselves sick after eating, in an attempt to look good, researchers say.

New data suggests that eating disorders are a growing problem among teenage boys. Many are turning to drugs and muscle-building supplements.

The phenomenon is so widespread that the name ‘manorexia’ has been coined to describe it.

Almost one in three young men has gone to extremes - including making themselves sick after eating - to enhance their appearance - suggesting eating disorders are a growing problem among teenage boys

The study’s lead author, Alison Field of Boston Children’s Hospital, said: ‘We need to be thinking more broadly about eating disorders and considering males as well.’

Classical eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, in which a person refuses to eat, and bulimia nervosa, in which someone binges then purges through vomiting or laxative use.

Professor Field said: ‘For a lot of males, what they’re striving for is different from females.

‘They’re probably engaged in something different from purging.’

Classical eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, in which a person refuses to eat, and bulimia nervosa, in which someone binge-eats then purges through vomiting or laxative use

Men make up an estimated one in every ten eating disorder sufferers. In the UK, the highest rates of new cases are among girls aged 15 to 19 and boys aged ten to 14.

Bulimia and problems such as binge eating account for 38 per cent of new cases, official figures show.

Professor Field’s research on US teenagers found 31 per cent of males had binged on food or purged.

Her team spent three years surveying 5,527 boys who were aged 12 to 18 at the start of the study in 1999.

They were asked how they saw their bodies and about unhealthy behaviours such as drug and alcohol use.

Overall, young men were most likely to worry about being muscular, and that concern increased with age.

This could be the male equivalent of some girls’ preoccupation with extreme thinness, the study said.

About 9 per cent reported a high level of concern with muscularity, while 2 per cent had also used some type of supplement, growth hormone or anabolic steroid to look better.

That figure rose to 8 per cent for older teens aged 16 to 22, the research in journal JAMA Pediatrics found.

Professor Field said using such products was risky: ‘There are a whole range of products available online that we don’t know if they’re healthy or not. We know when a lot of them are tested, they’re not what they’re marketed to be.’

About nine per cent of teenage boys said they were concerned about their body's muscularity. Two per cent of these people had used some type of supplement, growth hormone derivative or anabolic steroid to enhance it

Young men who used enhancement products were more likely than their peers to binge drink and use drugs.

About 6 per cent of boys were very worried about both having muscle and being thin. Just over 2 per cent worried only about thinness, and this group were the most likely to develop symptoms of depression later on.

Professor Field said ‘airbrushed’ models with unrealistic bodies could have a bad effect on teens.

She said doctors and parents should be aware of attempts by young men to change their bodies, to make sure it is being done for the right reasons and in a healthy way.

Brent Girouex, Confesses to Having Sex with Four Teenage Boys and Gets NO Days in Jail

This is effed up in more ways than I count. Our system is so screwed up - even the original 17 years this pedophile received was not sufficient, especially considering he is clearly delusional based on his comments.

‘Rape Away The Gay’ Pastor Brent Girouex Gets Sentence Reduced 

“Rape away the gay” pastor Brent Girouex, a 31-year-old Iowa man, will not serve jail time for confessing to police that he had sex with at least four youths, according to a recent report from KRMG.

Since that confession, eight additional young men have admitted to being violated by the now-former pastor of Victory Fellowship Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

If you don’t want to be appalled, fair warning: you may want to skip over this next section.

Apparently, Girouex thought he could rape away the gay by “praying while he had sexual contact” with his victims in an effort to keep them “sexually pure” for God.

 He then allegedly told police that “when they would ejaculate, they would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind.”

Girouex is a married father of four. Since the disturbing revelations have hit the Internet, his wife Erin has spoken out against him and the reduced sentence that he received after initially getting 17 years in prison.

Instead of upholding to that initial ruling, a judge decided to sentence Girouex to five years probation and mandatory sexual offender treatment.

Provided he doesn’t violate the terms of his probation — in other words, victimize someone else — he will not serve a day in jail.

In comments to KCCI, Erin Girouex had this to say about the idea of sending her husband to prison: “If that’s what it takes to get him away from people, then yes … I don’t want (my children) anywhere near him.”

She added that what she wants is for other victims of sexual misconduct to speak out before it’s too late.

Erin plans to file for divorce, but according to KCCI “the hang-up is that her husband wants to see their children.”

Currently, Brent Girouex has a court-ordered, twice-per-month visitation schedule, where he must be supervised by his own mother.

Here’s a mugshot: 



The sentence in this case has many Americans understandably perplexed at the lax attitudes toward sexual violence.

Following on the heels of a Montana judge, who only sentenced a convicted rapist to 30 days in jail after his 14-year-old victim committed suicide, it definitely establishes a horrible precedent.

Do you think the case of the “rape away the gay” pastor is proof the US does not take sexual crimes against minors seriously?

‘Rape Away The Gay’ Pastor Brent Girouex Gets Sentence Reduced Rape Away The Gay Pastor Will Not Serve Time “Rape away the gay” pastor Brent Girouex, a 31-year-old Iowa man, will not serve jail time for confessing to police that he had sex with at least four youths, according to a recent report from KRMG. Since that confession, eight additional young men have admitted to being violated by the now-former pastor of Victory Fellowship Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa. If you don’t want to be appalled, fair warning: you may want to skip over this next section. Apparently, Girouex thought he could rape away the gay by “praying while he had sexual contact” with his victims in an effort to keep them “sexually pure” for God. He then allegedly told police that “when they would ejaculate, they would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind.” Girouex is a married father of four. Since the disturbing revelations have hit the Internet, his wife Erin has spoken out against him and the reduced sentence that he received after initially getting 17 years in prison. Instead of upholding to that initial ruling, a judge decided to sentence Girouex to five years probation and mandatory sexual offender treatment. Provided he doesn’t violate the terms of his probation — in other words, victimize someone else — he will not serve a day in jail. In comments to KCCI, Erin Girouex had this to say about the idea of sending her husband to prison: “If that’s what it takes to get him away from people, then yes … I don’t want (my children) anywhere near him.” She added that what she wants is for other victims of sexual misconduct to speak out before it’s too late. Erin plans to file for divorce, but according to KCCI “the hang-up is that her husband wants to see their children.” Currently, Brent Girouex has a court-ordered, twice-per-month visitation schedule, where he must be supervised by his own mother. Here’s a mugshot: Rape Away The Gay Pastor Mugshot Brent Girouex The sentence in this case has many Americans understandably perplexed at the lax attitudes toward sexual violence. Following on the heels of a Montana judge, who only sentenced a convicted rapist to 30 days in jail after his 14-year-old victim committed suicide, it definitely establishes a horrible precedent. Do you think the case of the “rape away the gay” pastor is proof the US does not take sexual crimes against minors seriously?
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/946459/rape-away-the-gay-pastor-brent-girouex-gets-sentence-reduced/#21F3izuySEzIyQTK.99

Henry Rollins on the Steubenville Rape Case

Yesterday I posted about the Steubenville rape case verdict and the fact that CNN seemed to feel worse for the two young men (whose lives are ruined by the conviction) than for the victim (whose life is also shattered).

So a friend at Facebook, and author of the Beyond Meds blog, shared a link to Henry Rollins' response to the case. As always, Rollins is thoughtful and honest - it is certainly worth the read.

DISPATCH 03-17-12 LOS ANGELES

03-17-13

For the last couple of hours, I have been thinking of the verdict that was reached in what is now known as the Steubenville rape case.

Since all involved are minors, I won’t use anyone’s name. Two juvenile males were found delinquent of the charges and will be, as far as I understand, incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility until they are twenty-one years of age.

There is, I guess, cell phone generated video content of parts of the crime. It went “viral” on the internet and brought attention to the events.

I got through a few minutes of it but was too disgusted to watch the rest.

The case, the verdict and the surrounding circumstances open up a huge conversation.

These are a few of the things that I have been thinking about.

After reading several posts online, I was not surprised at the vast range of sentiments expressed. Many of the postings were of outrage that the two found delinquent were not tried as adults so they would face much longer sentences. You might not know, but in some states, this sentence would be decades long. Many of the posts spoke of the damage done to the victim and the life she will have now. One person suggested caning the two young men. Many others were angered at the deification of high school football players and how they often receive special treatment. You can read this stuff all day if you want.

After reading posts for quite awhile, I thought first about the two young men. I wondered if the years in the facility will “help” them. What, exactly does one “learn” in one of these places? That is to say, after five years locked away, does the idea of assaulting a woman seem like the wrong thing to do, more than if you were incarcerated for one year? Would you be “more sorry” about what you did? Is that possible? Or, would you just be more sorry for yourself about where your actions landed you? At what point do you get “better”, how many years in one of these places does that take?

What made these young people think that that what they did was ok? What was in their upbringing, the information and morals instilled in them that allowed them to do what they did, minute after minute, laughing, joking, documenting it and then calling it a night and going home? Out of all the people who were witness to what happened, why wasn’t there someone putting a stop to it?

What I am attempting to get at, and I apologize if I am not being clear enough is that this is a failure on many levels. Parents, teachers, coaches, peers all come into play here. I am not trying to diffuse blame or lessen the awfulness of what happened but I want to address the complexity of the cause in an effort to assess the effect so it can be prevented.

Some might say that the two going to the youth facility are as much victims as the young women who was assaulted. I do not agree. The two are offenders. What they did was obviously wrong. That being said, we cannot end the discussion at that point and expect things to change.

I have yet to say anything about the damage done to the young woman involved. It is ironic and sad that the person who is going to do a life sentence is her.

As a testament to the horrific power of sexual assault, I encourage you to see, yet cannot recommend the documentary The Invisible War about sexual assault in the military. The reason I say that I cannot recommend it is that it is so well done, so clear and devastating that it will put you through quite a wringer. I do hope you see it but damn, it’s hard. In the interviews with women who have been assaulted by fellow members, the damage that has been done to these good people is monumental.

Many people are angry that more time was not given to the offenders. This seems to be the prevailing sentiment. I understand the anger but don’t know if adding a decade onto their sentences would be of any benefit. To me, the problem that needs to be addressed is where in the information chain were the two offenders made to understand that what they did was not wrong on every possible level? You can execute them both tomorrow but still, there is a problem that needs to be dealt with.

It’s a situation where you would like to be able to point a finger and say, that’s the reason and be done. You have to be careful when you do this because it’s easy to miss.

I think to a great degree, we humans still divide ourselves into two species, even though we are monotypic. There are males and females. We see them as different and not equal. Things get better when women get more equality. That is a bit obvious but I think it leads to better results up the road. If it’s a man’s world as they say, then men, your world is a poorly run carnage fest.

It is obvious that the two offenders saw the victim as some one that could be treated as a thing. This is not about sex, it is about power and control. I guess that is what I am getting at. Sex was probably not the hardest thing for the two to get, so that wasn’t the objective. When you hear the jokes being made during the crime, it is the purest contempt.

So, how do you fix that? I’m just shooting rubber bands at the night sky but here are a few ideas: Put women’s studies in high school the curriculum from war heroes to politicians, writers, speakers, activists, revolutionaries and let young people understand that women have been kicking ass in high threat conditions for ages and they are worthy of respect.

Total sex ed in school. Learn how it all works. Learn what the definition of statutory rape is and that it is rape, that date rape is rape, that rape is rape.

In the spirit of equal time, sites like Huffington Post should have sections for male anatomy hanging out instead of just the idiotic celebrity “side boob” and “nip slip” camera ops. I have no idea what that would be like to have a camera in my face at every turn, looking for “the” shot. I know what some of you are saying. “Then why do they wear clothes like that unless they want those photos taken?” I don’t know what to tell ya. Perhaps just don’t take the fuckin picture? Evolve? I don’t know.

Education, truth, respect, equality—these are the things that can get you from a to b very efficiently.

It must be an awful time for the parents of all three of these people and their relatives and I hope they all get to a better place soon.

What else? That’s all I’ve got. Thanks for reading this. Henry

When CNN broke the story of the two Steubenville boys being convicted of rape, their report focused exclusively on the fate of the rapists, not that of the victim. Poppy Harlow, CNN's reporter in the courtroom, lamented that it was "incredibly difficult" to watch "as these two young men — who had such promising futures, star football players, very good students — literally watched as they believed their life fell apart."

Seriously?

What about the life and future of the young woman who was raped while she was passed out and then photographed naked by one of the rapists, with the pictures being posted online.

The case gained international attention after the hacker collective Anonymous released information connected to the incident, alleging that local authorities were protecting the defendants because of their athletic connections. This kind of behavior by people in authority is why teen boys think they can get away with crap like this.

Despite Poppy Harlow's inappropriate sympathizing with the convicted rapists, these boys raped a girl who was defenseless and posted pictures of her online. They got off easy, because they were tried as juveniles despite being 16 and 17 years old.
 

CNN grieves that guilty verdict ruined ‘promising’ lives of Steubenville rapists

By David Edwards (RAW Story)
Sunday, March 17, 2013

CNN broke the news on Sunday of a guilty verdict in a rape case inSteubenville, Ohio by lamenting that the “promising” lives of the rapists had been ruined, but spent very little time focusing on how the 16-year-old victim would have to live with what was done to her.

Judge Thomas Lipps announced on Sunday that Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, would be given a maximum sentence after being found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl while she was unconscious. Richmond could be released from a juvenile rehabilitation facility by the age of 21 and Mays could be incarcerated until the age of 24.

CNN’s Candy Crowley began her breaking news report by showing Lipps handing down the sentence and telling CNN reporter Poppy Harlow that she “cannot imagine” how emotional the sentencing must have been.

Harlow explained that it had been “incredibly difficult” to watch “as these two young men — who had such promising futures, star football players, very good students — literally watched as they believed their life fell apart.”

“One of the young men, Ma’lik Richmond, as that sentence came down, he collapsed,” the CNN reporter recalled, adding that the convicted rapist told his attorney that “my life is over, no one is going to want me now.”

At that point, CNN played video of Richmond crying and hugging his lawyer in the courtroom.

“I was sitting about three feet from Ma’lik when he gave that statement,” Harlow said. “It was very difficult to watch.”

Candy then asked CNN legal contributor Paul Callan what the verdict meant for “a 16 year old, sobbing in court, regardless of what big football players they are, they still sound like 16 year olds.”

“What’s the lasting effect though on two young men being found guilty juvenile court of rape essentially?” Crowley wondered.

“There’s always that moment of just — lives are destroyed,” Callan remarked. “But in terms of what happens now, the most severe thing with these young men is being labeled as registered sex offenders. That label is now placed on them by Ohio law.”

“That will haunt them for the rest of their lives.”

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast March 17, 2013.

Loss Of Virginity More Humiliating Than Original Virginity

For a lot of guys, I suspect there is some real truth in this satire from The Onion. If only there had been REAL sex education classes - not the stuff about how babies are made and "just say no," but real education about sexual response patterns in men and women [boys know nothing about this until they have a girlfriend who teaches them], about intimacy as foreplay, and about ways to be sexual without intercourse.

But of course the religious folks would never tolerate real education about sex - they'd rather shame the young women who get pregnant and seek abortions than do anything that might prevent pregnancy in the first place. And it's all made worse with so many young guys learning about sex from internet porn - dudes, it ain't like that in the real world.

Okay, down from my soapbox - this is funny, and sad, and a lot too true for many of us. It's from 2007, but this is timeless.

Loss Of Virginity More Humiliating Than Original Virginity 

ISSUE 43•47 • Nov 20, 2007

COLUMBUS, OH—The shame, humiliation, and ridicule local teen Brandon Means suffered from being the only member of his peer group still burdened with his own virginity were nothing compared to what he felt on the night he finally lost it, the 17-year-old said Monday. "I have never been so embarrassed in all of my life," Means said of the Saturday night fiasco. After some awkward fumbling, Means prematurely ejaculated, and, while trying to clean the semen off himself and girlfriend Kassi Helms, also 17, with a sock from his bedroom floor, he managed only to smear them both with lint. "There was this moment when I was on top of her and she realized I really didn't know where her [vagina] was, so she kind of had to steer my [penis] inside it, but at that point I was so demoralized that I lost my [erection]." Means added that when he heard his father enter the house, forcing both teenagers to immediately stop and clothe themselves, he had never felt a stronger sense of relief.

Men's Magazines Target Hyper-Masculine Advertising Images to Adolescents

This article appeared recently in the XX Factor column at Slate (What Women Really Think). Amanda Hess offers a summary of a new article from Sex Roles that looked at how advertising in magazines aimed at young, lesser educated men define masculinity and manhood. The view is not good - the stereotypes being presented are very limited and limiting.

According to a survey of the advertising, a "man" is a "stomping, yelling, shooting, drinking, fucking, tough guy. He has big muscles and a limited emotional range—stoic, angry, horny. He exists in dark alleyways, war zones, and fast cars. He holds his beer bottle over his crotch to approximate a boner."

How Men's Magazines Sell Masculinity to Young, Low-Income Men

By Amanda Hess | Posted Friday, March 1, 2013

A group of psychologists read Playboy for the ads

What makes an ideal man? Page through the advertisements placed in a standard American men’s magazine, and you’ll find one idea: He is a stomping, yelling, shooting, drinking, fucking, tough guy. He has big muscles and a limited emotional range—stoic, angry, horny. He exists in dark alleyways, war zones, and fast cars. He holds his beer bottle over his crotch to approximate a boner.

If advertising is meant to be aspirational, these ads are presenting a pretty sad version of what American men can aspire to be. And advertisers aren’t selling this hyper-masculine ideal to just any man: They’re specifically targeting the younger, poorer, less-educated guys in the supermarket aisle. In the latest issue of the journal Sex Roles, a trio of psychologists at the University of Manitoba analyzed the advertising images in a slate of magazines targeted at men, from Fortune to Field and Stream. They counted up the adsthat depict men as violent, calloused, tough, dangerous, and sexually aggressive—what the researchers call “hyper-masculine”—then indexed them with the magazine’s target demographics. Hyper-masculine images, the researchers found, are more likely to be sold to adolescents, who find higher “peer group support” for manly-man behaviors. They’re also sold to working-class men, who are “embedded in enduring social and economic structures in which they experience powerlessness and lack of access to resources” like political power, social respect, and wealth, and so turn to more widely accessible measures of masculine worth—like “physical strength and aggression.”

The magazines pushing this image most aggressively are Playboy and Game Informer, whose ads play on hyper-masculine tropes about 95 percent of the time. (Compare that to magazines like Golf Digest and Fortune, which rely on those images for about 20 percent of ads). Playboy and Game Informer represent two different segments of the hyper-masculine demo: The playboys and the gamers are both bringing in a low annual household income, but the playboys are older (the target age for readers is 30 to 39) and less likely to have attended college than their gaming peers. So while Game Informer’s socially-mobile twentysomethings can conceivably age out of these hyper-masculine tropes, Playboy’s readers are stuck with them.

These advertising trends speak to the latest development in Hugh Hefner’s sexual revolution. When Playboy launched in 1953, it was billed as a liberating, sophisticated, and intellectual response to conservative sexual norms. It featured icons like Marilyn Monroe and Ray Bradbury. It was not, in fact, inconceivable to read it for the articles. Sixty years later, the magazine’s advertisers are chasing a readership of middle-aged men who are undereducated and underpaid. Its vision of masculinity now looks constrictive. And its titular image—that of the wealthy man of leisure—plays ironically. Playboy’s version of sexual revolution was never very empowering to women and gay men. But if the tactics of its advertisers is any indication, it’s not a very liberating mold for straight guys, either.

Romeo Vitelli, Ph.D. - When Men Are Raped

Contrary to what the author of this study reports, I am proud to say that SACASA (Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault), where I work as a trauma therapist, has been seeing male survivors or rape, assault, molestation, and incest for most of its existence, beginning with the Tucson Rape Crisis Center in the late 1970s.

The numbers reported here a bit low, from what I have seen - around 11-15% of all rapes are of males, with 85-89% female victims. [If male rapes in prison and/or the military were accurately reported, I suspect these numbers would be much different.] From what I have seen personally, there is definitely a higher percentage of gay and bisexual (and possibly MTF transgender) survivors, with most being under 25 when they first seek services with our agency.

We work hard to include information on male victims, especially young boys and teens, in our community outreach and education, but I suspect there are still a lot of myths about men and rape, as this article suggests and tries to remedy.

When Men Are Raped

Being sexually assaulted is not something that only happens to women

Published on October 7, 2012 by Romeo Vitelli, Ph.D. in Media Spotlight

 

The trauma that women who have been sexually victimized is well-known, both in terms of the emotional consequences of the assault itself as well as the pain associated with trying to obtain justice afterward. While men are usually the perpetrators of sexual violence and women are usually the victims, that is not always the case however.  

Actual incidence of sexual assault involving adult male victims has always been difficult to estimate. Victim surveys of British and American males have shown that 3 to 8 per cent of males reported at least one adulthood incidence of sexual assault in their lifetimes with at least 5 to 10 per cent of all rape victims being male (Pino & Meier, 1990;   Coxell & King, 1999). These numbers can be substantially higher for non-heterosexual males though.  One 2005 study reported that 13.2 per cent of bisexual males and 11.2 per cent of gay men reported at least one instance of sexual assault as adults. Still, those numbers are almost certainly underestimate the reality considering most male victims are reluctant to report their sexual assault to the police. While the majority of these crimes are committed by male offenders, an estimated 6 to 15 per cent of these sexual assaults can involve female perpetrators (either working independently or in association with male co-offenders). 

But why has male sexual assault been so often marginalized in many societies?   According to a provocative new literature review recently published in Psychology of Men and Masculinity,  the problem may stem from various “myths” surrounding male rape. The review authors, Jessica A. Turchik of Stanford Medical School and Katie M. Edwards of Ohio University,  focus on a series of common rape myths that often prevent male victim from reporting their assault and can even make police officers refuse to take their complaint seriously. The myths include:

• Men cannot be raped
• “Real” men can defend themselves against rape
• Only gay men are victims and/or perpetrators of rape
• Men are not affected by rape (or not as much as women)
• A woman cannot sexually assault a man
• Male rape only happens in prisons
• Sexual assault by someone of the same sex causes homosexuality
• Homosexual and bisexual men deserve to be sexually assaulted because they are immoral and deviant
• If a victim physically responds to a sexual assault, he must have wanted it.

Many of these myths are frequently reported in social psychological reviews of male and female rape. Found across different cultures, they often reflect common attitudes about male sexuality. Since most media coverage on rape focuses on female victims with any reporting of male rape tending to be lurid (and often sarcastic), it is probably not surprising that male rape myths persist over time.   

Media representations of male rape (such as in movies like “Deliverance” and graphic scenes of rape in prison) certainly reinforce these attitudes. Even laws relating to sexual assault have shown a clear gender bias at times with rape being defined as female-only in many jurisdictions (such as in Canada before the Criminal Code was revised during the 1980s).    

Considering how common male rape myths are, it is probably not surprising that studies of law enforcement officers, medical students, and even rape crisis workers have shown these same attitudes towards sexual assault involving male victims. While homophobia can often account for gay rape victims being more likely to be blamed than heterosexual victims of sexual assault,  there is also a strong correlation between believing rape myths involving both male and female victims. In other words, people who believe common myths about male rape are likely to believe myths about female rape as well.

Whatever the cause, persistent attitudes about male rape are found in large segments of the general population and can have devastating consequences for men who have been victimized. Not only are victims far less likely to report the crime but those victims courageous enough to come forward can face a horrendous lack of support from the criminal justice system and even from those agencies that provide assistance for female victims of sexual assault.   

Although crisis center and hospital records have consistently shown that 3 to 12 per cent of reported sexual assault involve male victims,  one study from the 1990s indicate that as many as 37 per cent of rape crisis centres restrict services to females only. I am not aware of any more recent studies to suggest that this has changed substantially over time.

As Turchik and Edwards point out in their review, the negative attitudes spurred on by myths surrounding male rape are well-established among medical professionals, the courts, police officers, the military, and even the prison system and spring from the same patriarchal systems that reinforce negative attitudes about female rape. While more sensitive reporting has helped change attitudes towards female rape, whether these same changes will encourage male victims to come forward is another question.

Though prison rape and sexual assault of underage males have been forced into the open as more high-profile cases are reported, the prevalence of male rape myths in our society and the attitudes about male sexuality that they reflect are much slower to change. That these changes need to happen and resources need to be put in place to help both men and women who experience sexual assault is something that we must face, both as a society and as individuals.

For simple justice, if nothing else.

Ellen Goldbaum-Buffalo - Obese Boys Have Up to 50% Less Testosterone

While I have known for a long time that higher levels of fat storage equates to lower testosterone levels, I had no idea the numbers were so alarming in growing boys. The problem is that fat cells create estrogen and have estrogen receptors, so the more fat storage there is, the more estrogen is in the body. The more estrogen there is in the male body, the lower the levels of testosterone produced.

In developing boys - not to mention adult men - this has all kinds of negative effects, including enlarged breasts (and increased risk of breast cancer), reduced muscle mass, depression, impotence, and possible infertility. The fat storage combined with the reduced muscle mass can eventually lead to diabetes.

We have to stop this trend of obesity in our children, both boys and girls (who experience earlier menarche when overweight). It starts with parents and the choices they make around food and family entertainment. But it also involves city and neighborhood planning (more parks and green spaces), returning recess and P.E to schools, making healthier foods more affordable, and reshaping our cultural beliefs around food. The future does not look good - and I don't see anyone really devoting resources to the problem.

The full article is available for free online at the Clinical Endocrinology site.

Full Citation:

Mogri, M, Dhindsa, S, Quattrin,T, Ghanim, H, and Dandona, P. (2012, Sept). Testosterone concentrations in young pubertal and postpubertal obese males. Clinical Endocrinology, Vol. 77, Issue 5. doi: 10.1111/cen.12018

In obese boys, up to 50 percent less testosterone

Posted by Ellen Goldbaum-Buffalo on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

A 50 percent reduction in testosterone seen in obese boys is "frankly, horrendous, because these boys are potentially impotent and infertile," says Paresh Dandona of the University at Buffalo. "The message is a grim one with massive epidemiological implications." (Credit: "overweight boy" via Shutterstock)

U. BUFFALO (US) — Obese adolescent boys have up to 50 percent less total testosterone than do normal-weight boys of the same age, significantly increasing the risk for impotency as adults.

“We were surprised to observe a 50 percent reduction in testosterone in this pediatric study because these obese males were young and were not diabetic,” says Paresh Dandona, professor of medicine and chief of the division of endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at the University at Buffalo.

“The implications of our findings are, frankly, horrendous because these boys are potentially impotent and infertile. The message is a grim one with massive epidemiological implications.”

Published online in the journal Clinical Endocrinology, the small study included boys between the ages of 14 and 20—25 boys who were obese and 25 who were lean—and was controlled for age and level of sexual maturity. Concentrations of total and free testosterone and estradiol, an estrogen hormone, were measured in morning fasting blood samples.

The researchers say the results now need to be confirmed with a larger number of subjects.

“These findings demonstrate that the effect of obesity is powerful, even in the young, and that lifestyle and nutritional intake starting in childhood have major repercussions throughout all stages of life,” Dandona says.

In addition to the reproductive consequences, the absence or low levels of testosterone that were found also will increase the tendency toward abdominal fat and reduced muscle, Dandona says, leading to insulin resistance, which contributes to diabetes.

“The good news is that we know that testosterone levels do return to normal in obese adult males who undergo gastric bypass surgery,” says Dandona. “It’s possible that levels also will return to normal through weight loss as a result of lifestyle change, although this needs to be confirmed by larger studies.”

The same authors reported in 2004 the presence of low testosterone levels, known as hypogonadism, in obese, type 2 diabetic adult males and confirmed it in 2010 in more than 2,000 obese men, both diabetic and nondiabetic. They now intend to study whether or not weight loss accomplished either through lifestyle changes or through pharmacological intervention will restore testosterone levels in obese teen males.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Source: University at Buffalo