Male Sexual Abuse Survivor Speaks Out Against Stigmas, Silence (VIDEO)

From the time he was eight-years-old, Jarrod Noftsger was sexually abused. On a HuffPost Live segment, he discussed the silence that surrounds male sexual abuse as well as the homophobic and traditionally masculine stereotypes that elevate its stigma in society.

Noftsger, the Assistant Department Head for Human Development and Family Science at Oklahoma State University, assessed that these stigmas complicate the healing process for abuse survivors.

“The whole masculinity issue - even my own kids had to deal with this at school," he told HuffPost Live host Josh Zepps. "Their friends said, ‘Why didn’t he just fight back? If that was me, I would just beat that dude up.’ So in addition to the sexuality questions, you have all these masculinity questions which really come together and converge and really cause even an adult to be confused.”

Zepps and Noftsger were joined by Howard Fradkin, a psychologist and co-chair of MaleSurvivor, Executive Director of MaleSurvivor Chris Anderson, and Andrew Sawyer, a sexual abuse survivor who was verbally and physically assaulted in the workplace.

Watch the full segment on HuffPost Live.