Workshopping the Nuance of Men as Victims

• In Event: 40820 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 17: Gender and Violence

Abstract

The question of men as victims surfaced in my dissertation research, particularly in the context of sexual violence, social inequalities, and the #MeToo movement. While my work critically examines masculinities and the discursive strategies men use to navigate conversations about sexual violence, it also reveals how some men position themselves as victims—whether as targets of false accusations of sexual misconduct or as survivors of sexual violence themselves. These claims of victimization are complex and often entangled with broader gendered power dynamics, making it crucial to engage with them without reinforcing narratives of “over-victimization” that risk undermining the structural realities of gendered violence.
I seek to workshop the nuance of men as victims by interrogating how such claims function within public discourse, institutional responses, and personal narratives. While acknowledging that men can and do experience harm—whether through direct victimization or through the constraints of gendered expectations—it is equally important to examine how these claims are constructed, mobilized, and received. In other words, when men frame themselves as victims, what does this accomplish socially, politically, and culturally? How do these narratives interact with existing structures of power, and to what extent do they reinforce or challenge dominant understandings of gender and violence?
Through this workshop, I aim to refine my approach to these questions, ensuring a nuanced engagement that neither minimizes men’s experiences of harm nor obscures the broader structural inequalities at play. By developing a more precise framework for analyzing men’s claims to victimization, I hope to account for both the realities of individual suffering and the larger social forces shaping these narratives.

Author

• Melissa Kinsella, Loyola University-Chicago