A mile away from where Sinaga committed his crimes, Survivors Manchester – a charity dedicated to male survivors – is holding a symposium. I was living numb.”Society drills strict gender norms into boys’ skulls from a very early age: a sense of being “strong” and “tough”, of not displaying weakness or vulnerability. As Alex Feis-Bryce, head of SurvivorsUK – himself a survivor who, aged 18, was drugged and raped like Sinaga’s victims – puts it: “A lot of men feel completely emasculated after being raped. The work done by such organisations transforms lives, but there are no statutory services for male survivors and male rape is subsumed into the government’s violence against women and girls strategy. It’s my weapon to cut through dark times.” Male survivors are suffering, largely in silence: but it’s not because they don’t want to talk.

Source: The Guardian January 16, 2020 10:49 UTC