Trauma from sexual abuse: The untold story of male victims in Hong Kong

Abstract

In Asian societies, the sexual abuse experiences of male victims are rarely studied due to social gender role stereotype, which enforces the discourse that men are supposed to be tough and impossible to be hurt, and not to report sexual abuse. This research examines the life journey of 12 sexually abused male survivors in Hong Kong to explore their struggles. Results show: firstly, male survivors are caught in shame and excitement when talking about their abusive incidents. Shamefulness leads some of them to have negative self-esteem while excitement makes some of them addicted to sexual activities or even become homosexual; secondly, they feel insecure to tell others about it after being abused, because of masculinity identity; thirdly, relationship building is always hard for them since they do not know how to maintain distance with the others.