Students often laugh at the idea that a man could be raped by a woman because they believe the myth that men are always willing to have sex, and so a woman would never need to rape a man. However, the myth actually serves to make male rape more humiliating and painful for many men. One study found that 1 in 33 men report having experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (Hensley, 2002).
Female rapists have been found to engage in a wide range of sexually aggressive behaviors, including forced sex and the use of verbal coercion (P. B. Anderson & Savage,
2005) . In a study of male college students, 34% reported coercive sexual contact: 24% from women, 4% from men, and 6% from both sexes (Struckman-Johnson & Struckman-Johnson, 1994). The majority of male rapes by women use psychological or pressured contact, such as verbal persuasion or emotional manipulation, rather than physical force. Although the majority of college men had no or very mild negative reactions to the unwanted female contact, 20% of the men experienced strong negative reactions. Because men who are raped by women are often unwilling to define themselves as victims, many do not report these rapes even though physical and psychological symptoms are common (P. B. Anderson & Savage, 2005).