There is a common misconception that men can't be the victims of rape or sexual assault. According to figures released previously by the Ministry of Justice, more than one in 10 victims of rape or attempted rape are male.
A report published in 2015, titled 'Silent Suffering: Supporting The Male Survivors Of Sexual Assault', revealed that as few as 3.9% of male victims of rape and sexual assault report the crime to police.
But statistics don't paint a proper picture of what it is like to be raped as a man. A Reddit thread has done just that by giving victims a chance to explain the situation and how it made them feel.
One user wrote of how he was 14-years-old when he was drinking with his mates before heading to sleep. He said there was a girl who 'came in shortly after me. I remember her flipping me over and pulling my pants down. I also remember her on top of me and feeling used, worthless and weak for not enjoying it more'.
The user adds: "I'll spare you the details but when I started to become more sexually active I kept having flash backs. It wasn't going to work.
"I thought that because the first time I had sex I was raped I was never going to have a normal sex life. I became depressed and drank heavy for the next few years.
"Things changed when I met my wife. I was finally able to talk to talk about it in a way that wasn't rooted in anger or sadness."
Another man explained how he lost his wife and an old friend from school from being sexually assaulted. "We had a party at their house one night, I passed out watching Anchorman. Woke up sometime later to her tugging and sucking on my dick.
"I asked what she was doing, she just looked at me. I rolled away, zipped up, went to the bathroom."
The guy says his friend and wife didn't believe him when he told them what happened. The woman told everyone a different version of events and he became a social pariah.
"I lost kind of a lot over that because 'girls can't rape boys'," he said.
That was a similar incident experienced by another user who explained how after a big night drinking at university he passed out in the common room. He said "My friend passed through the common area at about 4 am to get some water from the kitchen.
"He said he walked in and saw this girl riding on my lifeless body with my eyes closed and my head bobbing back and forth.
"Kind of fucked up that it gets downplayed for men so much."
The 2015 study estimated that across the UK between 2010 and 2014, 679,051 sexual assaults and rapes of males took place. Of these 652,568 were not reported to any police force.
Survivors Manchester, who support men who have experienced sexual assault and rape, believe that one of the major issue preventing men from coming forward is due to society's expectations around masculinity.
An online initiative was set up to help male rape survivors speak about their abuse. Project Unbreakable was started by New York photography student, Grace Brown in 2011, after a friend told her she was sexually assaulted.
Credit: Tumblr
Credit: Tumblr
Credit: Tumblr
Hopefully projects like this one, as well as open forums like Reddit will allow other victims to voice their experiences and either find justice or closure.
Featured Image Credit: PA