A NARRATIVE OF THE OTHER
It has truly been uneasy for me to descend into the male gender discourse owing to the fact that the existing and persisting literatures have over the years been wrapped around the exoneration of women and the consequent denigration of men, so to speak. In other words, recent genderlectal discourses, since the advent of feminism, has been to rewrite the order of women so that the men are, in my opinion, the strange, the ‘other human’ (‘other’ for short), different from the woman depicted as ‘I’ (as when one says ‘I and the other’). The other is now demarcated by the females(the I), making the females the real subject of discussion.
The feminist narrative is certainly not out of place as it rebukes a large number of age-old perceptions, conceptions and misconceptions. Since people’s perception has tended to be, if not, totally shifted to it, it has however created otherness (which is the male discourse), making a great many undermine a lot of queer issues concerning the other, especially in child abuse. This gap is thus what this article intends to fill faithfully. The article is completely a narrative of the other, so we can have a very faithful platform to ask, ‘Are the boys also sexually abused?’
And the notion is still trendy: Boys cannot be abused. Right from inception, it has been believed, especially in our African society, that males cannot be abused. This notion is upheld probably because of a man’s physique. His physique is biologically noted to be stronger and a bit more powerful. Again, he not the woman has no hole to be thrust into, thus making it was for him to overwhelm the woman as it were.
In addition, it is believed that all males are man enough to avoid abuse no matter the cost. In relation to that, what can we say about a boy secretly abused by his nanny or by his older female cousin? Yes, I know what’s going through your mind. You may count this as an exception but that’s what it is.
In the past centuries, the earth has been a man’s world. The women had no voice. As a result of this, advocates for women’s right sprang up. Currently, the rights of women are relatively established and their history rewritten into relevance.
It is believed that a man should stand up for his rights in his world. However, we tend to forget that there are children who are not as assertive as others are. These children keep the abuse a secret. Nothing seems to be done about this.
Society has helped fuel the abuse of the male child. How has it done this? It has turned all its attention to the female child. This leaves the male child with no one to confide in.
According to data, 1 out of every 9 girls under the age of 18 are sexually abused. (Fin Kelhor et al, 2014). More recent data reports that 1 in 6 men have experienced sexual abuse during childhood or adolescence. ( Romano, Moorman, Ressel and Lyons, 2019). Sexual abuse often goes unreported and rates of nondisclosure are often higher among males than females. This proves that the statistics of the male abuse rank higher than the females.
What are your views on this discourse? Do you agree that there may be more sexually abused boys out there than are reported? I’ll love to read your answers in the comment section below.
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Uwam.me 