male genital abuse

Anyone have any thoughts on the extremely pervasive use of portrayals involving men getting their genitals hurt in the media? I guess most consider it funny, however, I believe it systematically perpetuates, condones, and trivializes the severity of malicious actions and attitudes towards men's sexuality.

Dairy Queen, Budwieser, Miller, Progressive Insurance, Chipshot.com, For Eyes, Citi Bank, Right Guard, Union Bay, Subway, Doritos (what I can think of most recently), have all made such a commercial within the last year or two.

Probably thousands of other depictions of men getting their genitals bludgeoned have made their way into television shows and movies in the last decade. Most frequently, the intended response from the audience is laughter. People finding humor in the assaulted man or boy's squirmish reaction to extreme pain and suffering. Even kids movies like Daddy Day Care make use of male genital abuse. Movies are now socializing kids at a very young age to be accepting of it.

In effect, one of the most malicious and potentially physically/emotionally damaging forms of sexual assault is now pop-humor. And if it's so "funny" then how come women can't be similarly abused for the amusement of television viewers? Can't say I've ever seen a "Football in the boob" skit.

thoughts?

*giggles*

Here's my thoughts....
I think you have some good points, maybe a little extreme, but good.
My feminist opinion though, is that with all the horrible things done to women in the media and IRL, men can take a hit in the nuts once in a while.

True enough, but there seem to be plenty of females who think that this particular act of violence is funny even when it's intentional, for some reason. Anyway, that's pretty way the way violence is portrayed in general when a male is the victim. You can't watch a sitcom for long without seeing a guy getting slapped or something for no real reason. Obviously violence is wrong, but the point is that people don't seem to feel this way except in certain situations. I guess I just never understood the expression "it's wrong to hit a girl".

How often do you see women being treated violently being portrayed as humorous? And even when you do see it, you probably think that it's wrong. Why not this?

The point is that the intended outcome is that in one way or another you hit a man in the genitals. They are not all accidental. The one from progessive auto insurance is of the guy's girlfriends torturing him. Also, the point is of the frequency of the use of these portrayals. The union bay advertisement features a man being thrown purposfully and repeatedly groin first into a parking meter. Citi bank has several ads featuring a woman abusing a man, but not always sexually. One time she gets him with a tazer, another she throws a trash can on his head.

The point, more broadly put than just genital abuse, is the abuse in general. Physical torment is only humorous when directed at men. 99.9% of a time it is a man being tormented for the comedic relief of the audience.

Refering to real life here. The over abundance of such portrayals trivialized the trauma a boys and men who get assaulted in real life. Boyscouts of American funded a study on this and found that 1 in 10 boys will be sexually assaulted in this manner before even reaching highschool. And there are around 50,000 reported assaults that require medical attention every year.

sexual assault:

conduct of a sexual or indecent nature toward another person that is accompanied by actual or threatened physical force or that induces fear, shame, or mental suffering.

Offensively hitting a boy in the testicles does all these things. My point is that the media encourages and trivialized these real life incidents by constantly reincarnating some portrayal of male genital abuse.

::kicks Nutzy in the....well, you know::

I didn't say the stuff that happens to women is funny, I said it's horrible. Which is why when something hurtful is done to a mans genitals (the instrument usually responsible for such horrible treatment of women), I think it's funny, maybe it's subconscious thinking that makes it funny.
I'd also like to point out the fact that I did say he had some good points.

"My feminist opinion though, is that with all the horrible things done to women in the media and IRL, men can take a hit in the nuts once in a while."

What horrible things, sexual objectification?

I have no problem with sex, I have a problem with hurting other people. (unless they ask specifically for it)

Moreover your reasoning seems flawed. It's kind of like, these things done to women are wrong therefore it is ok to do these things to men, and men should just take it. If you were arguing for equal treatment (a supposedly feminist ideal)here you would agree that both are wrong and should be stopped. I don't like demeaning portrayals of women. Similarly, I don't like these demeaning portrayals of men.

People learn very well through monkey-see monkey-do. So it's only reasonable to suspect that the influx of such portrayals would increase the rate of this kind of sexual assault.

Making assumptions and pulling statistics out of your ass means absolutely nothing.

Try watching.

Once again, where are you getting this information? 1 in 10 boys will be sexually assaulted how? By accidentally getting hit in the nuts with a football? By a girl saying "ohh, i saw this on t.v." and hitting a boy's nuts with a hammer?

menweb.org
menstuff.com
menshealthmagazine.com

Are you getting defensive?

I believe you are hyperbolating everything I've said

*applauds* GO CLARA!

Intentionally hitting a man in the genitals is not sexual assault, it is assault. Raping a man is sexual assault.


No, it is second degree sexual assault. Read the law.

The Boy Scouts of American funded the study. Much of this information is also available in the book Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture by Katherine K Young and Paul Nathonson

oh, add ifeminist.com to the list of available sources that back me up. Wedny McElroy has quite a bit written on the subject.

Oh I get it, tit for nad

Even if that's true, it's pretty sad to see any type of assault being considered humorous.

I'm glad someone admits this much, at least. And I agree with your second point.

While we're at it, can someone pull up the statistics of girls that have sore nipples because of titty twisters?

It's amazing how your trivialize the signifigance of the issue. You can ruin a guys sex life and ability to reproduce. And the 1 in 10 stat refers to offensive assaults. That is, the assault was unprovoked.

I would not be concerned about the portrayal if there were not real life issues that correlate.

Of course not every portrayal is a horrible assault. But the sheer number of portrayals that exist is worrisome.

Why are you getting defensive over this?

"Intentionally hitting a man in the genitals is not sexual assault, it is assault. Raping a man is sexual assault.


No, it is second degree sexual assault. Read the law. "

And raping a man is rape.

I had a whole reply all written out, but decided to refresh the page before I submitted. I've decided not to post it because you seem to just want to argue and are not willing to listen to anyone elses opinions. Next time post a thread with your opinion and leave out the "Thoughts?" part.
Good luck with your drama, and welcome to the site.

heh...this thread needs some comedy...



that's all i could think of when i saw the thread title...sorry for the pirating...


edit: gyah...two edits to fix the pic...


[Edited on Jul 13, 2004 by dire_romantic]