Male Rape Victims Are Legitimate Rape Victims

I mentioned in an earlier post that I have some problems with certain episodes of Law And Order: SVU.  This post is going to largely look at episode ten of season three, so you've been warned for spoilers.

A short synopsis can be found on the episode's IMDB page:

When a young wife is found dead after what appears to have been an auto-erotic encounter, Detectives Benson and Stabler find out that the deceased and a group of her girlfriends had recently been accused of raping a male stripper (Pete Starrett). A.D.A. Cabot prosecutes the sexual assault. The rape leads the Detectives to believe that the woman's death may have been a murder

The episode opens with "Syd"'s boyfriend walking into her apartment, which has "sexual" music playing (to me it sounds like elevator music, but whatever floats your boat), candles lit, flowers strewn about, etc.  Setting the viewer up to believe that Syd is cheating on her boyfriend, I suppose.  Her boyfriend opens the door and sees that she has died from a miscalculated attempt at auto erotic asphyxiation, or so he thinks.  The episode is largely based around the assumption that this was not a suicide or accidental death, but a homicide, and the object of the episode is to find out who.  Detectives finally narrow it down to two of Syd's friends, who, in the process of the murder investigation, also end up being investigated for the rape of a male stripper.

Here's where the fun starts.  Detective Eliot Stabler is not at all convinced by the man's story, Detective Olivia Benson however, is.  She rightfully says (repeatedly) that a victim is a victim until proven otherwise and it is not the job of detectives to question an otherwise sound story based on gender or occupation, both things Eliot would never dream of doing if he had been assigned the case of a female stripper.  During the investigation of the rape, the male victim states that he was handcuffed to a bed post and raped, but that he had an erection at the time, and out of the mouth of Stabler comes Rape Myth 101:

If he was aroused, he consented

I was literally taken aback, while keeping in mind that this was a TV show I couldn't see the point of the inclusion of this line.  I definitely would have seen it if Benson had expanded on why arousal does not ever equal consent, especially if the victim is screaming and pleading for his perpetrators to stop, as the victim in this show was, but she didn't.  It was kind of just thrown out there while the other people in the room kind of gave Stabler a look and thought "Come on Eliot, that's kinda not cool."

It's very not cool.  It directly perpetuates the myth that men are unquestionably assailants and women are unquestionably victims.  While it's absolutely true that the overwhelming majority of rapists are men and the overwhelming majority of rape victims are women, that does not for one second devalue the claims of male rape victims, especially in cases where women are the rapists.  Just because they are rare cases does not mean they deserve to be taken any less seriously.

I apologize in advance if this sounds too much like a "what about teh menz?!?!" post, I in no way mean to project that sentiment, but I believe that no rape victim deserves to have her or his story discredited on the basis of gender or occupation.