A male survivor of sexual abuse describes the shame men carry in silence, rooted in feeling they failed to protect themselves. Society discusses women's abuse openly but actively silences men's experiences. There is only one dedicated facility for young male survivors in the entire United States, located in Texas.
And I think that's one of the challenges with men talking about sexual abuse is there's this sense of inner shame about not being able to protect yourself. And then going forward, society doesn't talk about the sexual abuse of men. We are comfortable, unfortunately, to have a conversation about the abuse of women and girls, but you would never bring up the conversation as a man because if you do— and I've seen it happen— conversations shut down and you lose friends. Because you're too, they're too embarrassed. I've had people who have been excited to read my book and I've never heard from 'em again because it's, I don't want to, that his story embarrasses me. They're uncomfortable with it. So there's a lot of this inherent societal shame that gets compounded with the shame as a man. And also, if you think about it, there aren't resources for men. There's one house in America for young men who have been sexually abused. It's in Texas. And you remember, Mm-hmm. Catalina, 20 years ago I started my recovery. There was not a single book on it. There was no support groups whatsoever in America.
