Hypermasculinity, male socialization, and sexual assault

Question: "Explain how sexual behaviour could be socialized in males. Do you think that males who commit sexual assault are "hypermasculine"? Why and where do men learn "hypermasculine" behaviour? Is there a cultural difference between males and females who commit sexual assaults?"

Hypermasculinity is a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on strength, aggression, body hair and odor, this term also has to do with and extreme search for power. Do I think males that commit sexual assaults are hypermasculine? Absolutely. The majority of sexual assaults are due to the sense of power a male either has or is looking for when commiting that particular crime. However there are different cases where power and control are not the issue, but drugs, alcohol, loneliness are.

Men, sad to say, the majority of the time learn hypermasculine behaviour from basically everything and everyone around them. Their parents may raise them to believe they need to be strong and powerful to achieve what they want and their friends/ family/ teachers may also encourage this. They also learn from a young age that they are to be stronger, more powerful than women and need to dominate in size and strength. If a male is weaker than a female it gives the female more "power" than she should have according to the myths we hear in our everyday life. Not only are males hearing this information but they are making sense of it and applying it to everything they do, including sexual assaults.

There is absolutely, one hundred percent a cultural difference between male and female sexual assaulters. Even though both are considered wrong there is a difference in treatment and understanding that is highly noticeable. For example, when a male commits a crime such as sexual assault against a young female, the male is thought of as creepy or "messed up" whereas if a female does the same thing against a young male, the female isn't thought of as strongly because according to society, males are more "dominating." Even thought it's the same crime being committed, society judges the male more harshly just because of the "power" they have and the control they can implicate.


A story quite recent in the news is the soldier charged in sex assaults on military base in Ontario. The soldier is a seven year veteran of the Canadian forces and is being charged with four counts of sexual assault on the base. Personally I think this story reflects what was stated before about
the power and strength males feel over females. A soldier would clearly feel more control, strength and power in a situation such as a sexual assault because of the amount of power they already do have. Perhaps he felt as if it would be easier for him to get away with because for one, he is a soldier (high respect) and for two, he's a male and knew his sense of power would win in his favour, however that was not the case. Two of the victims were found alone and easily taken control over because one was in a room alone and the other was walking a path alone. Being alone is clearly one of the major factors in determining a victim which is why both of those women were chosen.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Soldier+charged+assaults+military+base/3008164/story.html#ixzz0nXxMiNjq