Tyrannies Of Silence

The tyrannies of silence include both cultural and individual silences. Both sources of silences can be associated with the perception of gender. Cultural and individual silences are viewed upon on different levels but, can contribute to each other. In order to break a cultural silence an individual silence must be broken first. Cultural and individual silences can regulate individual visibility, can regulate social visibility and can reveal gender, which is demonstrated in Fred Pelka’s reading “Raped: A Male Survivor Breaks His Silence”. Gender is an example of cultural silence because “it is a macro-level silence” (Week of 9/28, Tyrannies of Silence). A macro-level silence means it effects more people. Domestic violence is an example of individual silence. Individual silence is “a micro-level silence” (Week of 9/28, Tyrannies of Silence), which means it only effects that one person themselves. Gender is “a social construct that prescribes the roles, attitudes,

Pelka’s incident is an example of cultural silence because rape is looked upon as mostly happening to females, which means it has been feminized. As Pelka states in his article he called the police for help and they told him “But you’re a man, this shouldn’t bother you” (Pelka, 26) helps prove rape has been feminized and should only effect females. The police also talk to Pelka about rape and how upset they have seen some girls after they have been raped (Pelka 26) and not once did they mention anything about a male rape. Since rape has been feminized it is looked upon and heard more about in the femininity part of gender which is associated with females most of the time. Since Pelka talks about his rape incident he has a high chance of changing a person’s view on male rape. That means he regulated individual visibility because he changed an individual’s thought on male