Funding research project on male rape: “Exploring men’s experiences of sexual coercion by a female partner using IPA”

About This Project

Sexual coercion (SC) means pressuring someone to engage in sexual activity despite their unwillingness to do so. Most research focuses on male-on-female SC and the slow acknowledgement that men can be sexually coerced too means support for men lags 20 years behind. Gender roles, social stigma, and beliefs around female-on-male SC downplay the impact and prevalence of male victimisation.

I will interview 7 men who experienced SC to explore how they made sense of it as part of a doctoral thesis.

What is the context of this research?

Decades of research focused on male-on-female sexual coercion (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p..., https://kar.kent.ac.uk/33378/), which helped us understand the relationship between gender and SC (https://books.google.co.uk/boo...) and makes sense considering the prevelance of male-on-female SC (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...). On the other hand, support for male victims is 20 years behind what is available to women (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi...).

Male-on-male SC happens more frequently but a study suggest a life-time prevalence rate of female-perpetrated SC at 30%, e.g. 30% of men will experience it their life time ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...). Another study found 19% of their male sample experienced it in the last year.

What is the significance of this project?

Female-on-male SC is under-researched, despite the similar impact on both men and women (https://kar.kent.ac.uk/33378/).

In addition, I want to contribute to an inclusive narrative that considers victims and perpetrators of all gender identities.

The dominant feminist narrative in the literature tends to cast men as perpetrators and women as victims, portraying SC as a result of male sexuality ( http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book...) - something female-on-male SC calls into question. This is an opportunity to re-examine and challenge these conceptualisations.

Some worry that championing support for men will detract from women's resources (http://jiv.sagepub.com/content...), but such rivalry is detrimental to all as it implies a hierarchy of suffering and enforces gendered victimhood.

What are the goals of the project?

Experimental design

I will interview 7 men who experienced female-perpetrated SC for about 1 to 1.5 hours each.

Use of funds

The funds will be used to pay for a renown transcription service in Brighton, UK that specialises in transcribing research videos ( https://www.uktranscription.co...). Specifically, I will be paying a rate 1 GBP per audio minute,

Time scale

I am awaiting ethical clearance and aim to start collecting data in early November 2017. The interviews will be transcribed, analysed and written up by mid April, and the report will be submitted as part of my doctoral disseration in August 2017. Afterwards, I will submit the report for publication to different journals.

What is the money for?

Transcription costs (about 550 in total). Using an external transcription service allows me to spend more time on analysis and writing up the final paper, as well as on my therapeutic practice and course work in the final year of my doctorate.