Male Rape Myth Correlates Among Male and Female Canadian Adults

Men experience sexual harassment, sexual violations, and rape, but these go largely unaddressed. Social norms and ideologies supporting masculine dominance and superiority claim that “real” men cannot be raped, and women cannot be perpetrators. Such myths are reinforced by masculine stereotypes and traditional gender roles. This research examined the extent to which masculinity and its related constructs of dominance, traditionalism, and sexism are related to attitudes regarding sexual violence toward men in samples of men and women. A convenience sample of 296 Canadian, self-identified men and 299 Canadian, self-identified women participated in the study. They completed various measures that assess masculinity and male dominance: conformity to masculine norms (i.e., emotional control, winning, playboy, violence, heterosexual self-presentation, pursuit of status, primacy of work, power over women, self-reliance, and risk-taking scales), social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), ambivalent sexism (i.e., hostile and benevolent sexism toward women), and ambivalent attitudes toward men. Most of the conformity to masculine norm scales were significantly correlated with male rape myths. SDO, RWA, ambivalent sexism, and ambivalent attitudes regarding men were also significantly related with male rape myths. Regression analyses revealed that SDO, RWA, hostile attitudes toward men, and playboy and self-reliance masculine-norm subscales explained unique variance in rape myth endorsement for men and women. These research findings indicate that male rape myths are sustained by overlapping systems of masculinity, dominance, and gender ideology.