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Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male
alt title(s): Rape Is Ok If Its Female On Male; Rape Is Okay When Its Female On Male
Rape is a cruel and evil act, beyond kicking the dog or any of the most villainous acts on TV. Except when they fall in love with the rapist, of course.

Well, there is one other exception: when the victim is a man, and the attacker is a woman. There are a few reasons for this. Upon hearing about it, some men would think, "Well, what's the problem?" The male being raped is sometimes depicted as "allowing it" and so does not lose much of his manliness or dominance. This, along with the fact that many males do not perceive being raped by an attractive woman as necessarily a bad thing (combined with All Men Are Perverts), makes this trope more acceptable in their eyes.

And when a man is truly victimized, there is a strong stigma about it that would stop them from treating it as an attack. Another part of what causes this reaction is that a man who can't fend off a woman is seen as much more pathetic than the reverse— even when the man is bound, incapacitated, or held at gunpoint. There is also a popular misconception that a man can't achieve the necessary arousal for sexual functions without at least semi-conscious consent and engagement (the old "if he was able to, he wanted to" canard) — though there were always ways around this, and the easy availability of anti-dysfunction drugs nowadays undermines it even more.

The depiction is rare on TV, but the few cases when it does happen are notable for that very reason. Most examples are from comedies, backing up the idea that most people find the concept that a man can be raped by a woman ridiculous. Of course in the real world this is not funny. Relatedly, compare the treatment of a man waking up in bed with an ugly woman after a night of getting drunk with the treatment of a woman who sleeps with a man (attractive or otherwise) in a similar situation.

For a trope that suffers a similar attitude, see Hot For Student — in many people's eyes, the fact that the adult is female, young and attractive, also makes it okay. Then again, people in general are just stupid. The infamous "Where were these teachers when I went to school?!" comment sums this up. (Answer: they still weren't interested in the Audio-Visual squad).

Unfortunately, this trope is complete Truth In Television, at least in social perception. Men raped by women face a far higher stigma than women raped by men; very few tell the police or anyone else. Women commit about a quarter of child sex abuse; a study found that 86% of their victims were not believed when they told someone a woman had molested them. According to Predictors of Sexual Coercion Against Women and Men 2.1% of the college age men surveyed experienced forced vaginal sex in their intimate relationships in the past year, compared to 1.6% of women who experienced the same. Now, compare these rates to how often men talk about or report sexual victimization.

Compare Rape Is Funny When It Is Male On Male, Rape As Comedy, and Rape Is Okay If Its Divine On Mortal. Closely related to (if not a direct by-product of) Its Not Rape If You Enjoyed It, since the common assumption is that men ''always'' enjoy sex, even if it's forced upon them. The existence of this trope in a lot of religion and mythology (particularly Greek) makes it Older Than Dirt.

For more information about this issue, please see this blog discussing modern-day cases of female-on-male rape along with the social stigma usually associated with it.

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