By Tyffani Dent, Psy.D.
I work with adolescents who have
engaged in problematic sexual behavior. Many of the clients with whom I work
are males. Being that within our juvenile justice system there is an
over-representation of those who come from marginalized communities, specifically
Black and Brown ones---with many explanations for this given from
over-policing, racial profiling, poverty not permitting access to services
expect through “systems”, etc.---it is not surprising that a significant
portion of those I serve are Black. Taking into consideration that the large
majority of sexual offenses committed by juveniles are committed by males (Finkelhor, Ormrod, & Chaffin, 2009)
it does not surprise me when clients I serve are overwhelmingly black boys, due
to a skewed engagement with the juvenile justice system.
When addressing problematic sexual
decisions with the boys I counsel, oftentimes the topic of their own early
sexual experiences emerges. In these conversations, there are times when they
report initiation to sexual behavior occurring at the hands of much older
adolescent or adult females and in some cases, male caregivers. Yet, in these discussions,
many of them do not view such interactions as sexual abuse or sexually
inappropriate, in part, because my community does not often “permit” our boys
access to the concept of it being acceptable to not want sexual contact.
Recently, Terry Crews, a
famous Black actor, came out and discussed his own #MeToo moment. He disclosed his own experiences with sexual
victimization. While some praised him, others including the Rapper 50 Cent, in
a tweet, and Senator Feinstein, in a congressional hearing, gave a response
with which I am more familiar with--- 50 Cent viewing Mr. Crews’s victimization
as discounting his manhood and Senator Feinstein questioning why a big male
such as Mr. Crews did not fight back.
This toxic masculinity, which is the push towards hypermasculinity and
belief in traditional male stereotypes, is prevalent within our Black and Brown
communities in part because of the historical emasculation of Black males since
slavery into Jim Crow. The current climate which we live in continues to
downplay options for healthy development of a male identity within the Black
and Brown communities due to mass incarceration. Such ingrained
hypermasculinity impacts not only the starting point in which one engages with
Black boys related to what healthy sexual decisions look like, but also in
reframing discriminatory selection of
sexual partners as being empowering instead of a sign of “weakness”.
How should the knowledge of toxic
masculinity impact our work with especially Black boys who have engaged in
problematic sexual behavior?
- Explore
early sexual experiences-address and normalize feelings of discomfort
around sexual contacts with those who were much older and provide them the
language to describe it as unwanted and problematic. Allow them the safe
space to process this.
- Assist in
examining how they define manhood. Where did the definitions come from?
How do they inform their views of sex and sexuality? The Young
Men’s Work curriculum and the book Dare
to Be King offer great resources on beginning this discussion from a
gender and a racial context.
- Reframe
masculinity as being an advocate for healthy relationships and being a
catalyst for assisting other males in doing the same.
- Examine
how (if applicable) these boys own problematic sexual decisions were
informed by toxic masculinity/hypermasculinity.
- When possible, engage other Black men in their lives who can serve
as a model for healthy masculinity. When not readily available, identify
movies, books, and other mediums in which there are positive portrayals of
black manhood. Interwoven in this should also be those stories of black
men and boys who have experienced victimization, struggles with their own
identifies, and other traumas---which can provide a framework for further
exploration of the impact of trauma and how it may play out uniquely for
black boys.
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