Sexual abuse of boys continues because of patriarchy, says expert

Chennai lecture highlights the ongoing sexual abuse of boys due to patriarchal norms and societal stigma.

Sexual abuse of boys continues to happen because of patriarchy, said Alankaar Sharma in Chennai on Wednesday at the annual lecture of Tulir Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse.

Mr. Alankaar senior lecturer, school of health and society, University of Wollongong, Australia, was speaking on ‘Boys, child sexual abuse and masculinities: Connecting the dots’.

“The maintenance of the archetype of the ‘real man’ within the patriarchal mould is predicated on subjugation of all experiences and expressions that do not fit the narrow and restricted box of idealised masculinity,” he said.

Stating that child sexual abuse is a patriarchal wound, Mr. Alankaar said that men do not see their lives as gendered and hence, don’t notice how gender order affects them. “Popular construction in patriarchal society allows little space for men to be acknowledged as experiencing sexual violence. As they are socially perceived as initiators of sexual contact and not as lacking it. A major reason for them to worry about seeking help is the homophobic stigma in society,” he added.

He stressed that the narrow and rigid expectations of the patriarchal construction of masculinity has created oppressive circumstances for boys and men survivors.

Talking about research on child sexual abuse in India, he said that there is a lot of material available on the prevalence of it and in India, particularly it is dominated by bio-medical research.