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Body Wash & Contraceptives
We all hear the joke; “Don’t drop the soap”, but we don’t always understand the reality behind this phrase. The media portrays sexual assaults against men in jail as jokes that hide a reality not many want to consider facing. Yet these incidents do happen to both men and women behind bars and just because we cannot hear their voices doesn’t mean they aren’t speaking to us. They are in need of help, trapped in a system built against them. So yes prison rape is an issue in itself, but the solutions and resources put in place to assist victims are currently ineffective.
Rapes in prisons occur at a staggering rate. “…one in four female prisoners and one in five male prisoners are subjected to some form of sexual…show more content…
The issue of rape does differ between the genders. Rape against men either emasculates or empowers a man; if he penetrates he still embodies a dominant male role, while if he is being penetrated he embodies a submissive female role. This distinction is important to understand because often when a man is raped once in prison he is “fair game” for future rape. Majority of these rapes go unnoticed because there is often the belief that the man wanted it. “…masculinity is privileged while traits stereotypically associated with femininity, synonymous with weakness, are devalued” (Deviance 99). When a man is penetrated he emulates the position of the female and is thus considered less than a male. We joke about this idea in popular media when we call a man; “sissy”, “pussy”, or even tread the line of “not dropping the soap”. To drop the soap is to become the female counterpart to a male prisoner, to become less than a man. That is how that idea is discussed in the media, as merely a comical joke not an undeniable reality for some. Women on the other hand have their own trials to bear. Some women are paid for their sexual favors to male guards and those who are raped are often encouraged to get abortions. Yet both women and men often allow the act as a form for protection. Many submit to these acts as a form of protection from punishment and harassment or in exchange for drugs or other items (Deviance, 102). This argument made in Caging Deviance does apply to both
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