A year and a half ago, an anonymous Duke student wrote an editorial asking victims of sexual assault to step forward with their stories. Women responded, as did a surprising number of men.
Events from that time touched off a renewed campaign on campus against sexual assault. Perhaps the most noticeable trend at Duke, though, has been the prominent participation of men in this movement.
In recent years, Men Acting for Change and the publication “Saturday Night: Untold Stories of Sexual Assault at Duke” have sprung up as a means of addressing rape on campus and off. Both initiatives are part of the overarching Sexual Assault Support Services.
“It’s been exciting to watch men slowly, increasingly, step up and become involved and to watch Men Acting for Change’s visibility on campus grow,” said Jean Leonard, SASS coordinator. “I think it is essential that men step forward. Ending violence against women is a men’s issue. Men perpetrate most interpersonal violence. Men are directly hurt by violence. Men are hurt when the women they love are hurt by violence. And men have so much power to make a difference.”
Men Acting for Change
Amid clothesline T-shirts and a sea of pinwheels on West Campus last week, men could be seen handing out white ribbons. The White Ribbon Campaign, a major part of Sexual Assault Prevention Week, prompted 1,006 men to sign a petition, pledging never to commit, condone or remain silent about sexual assault.
The campaign was spearheaded by MAC, an organization first started as an anti-pornography group. Last year, MAC broadened its mission. It now attempts to dissuade the notion that men should be aggressive and dominant. Group members believe that it is important for men to project a positive self image, said junior Geoff Lorenz, student organizer of MAC.
“If men have the power to apply pressure to each other to do things, then men have the power to apply pressure to each other to do the right things,” Lorenz said.
Lorenz said he has noticed that students are more receptive to the program than in years past.
MAC is run by 5 core members and approximately 60 students who have signed up to participate. The number of those involved has doubled since the fall, and the organization’s members said awareness is still spreading.
“MAC gives me the chance to act out on a daily basis what I think it means to be a man—caring, comforting and yet still strong,” said junior Jeff Faulring, secretary of MAC, who first heard about the program during a ribbon campaign last spring.
Even if the group’s membership does not grow steadily, Faulring said MAC is facilitating discussions about sexual assault and ways in which men can stop it.
“If people are talking about it, we have succeeded on some level,” he said.
Putting Assault on the Radar Screen
In 2003, a woman was allegedly raped in a bathroom in Wannamaker Dormitory. After that, a group of men began to ask how they could help prevent sexual assaults at Duke. They contacted the Women’s Center and were told to focus on acquaintance assault—attacks that happen between two people who know each other and see each other in everyday life. Although it may be difficult to stop a stranger in the bathroom, it is possible to address and educate peers, senior Ryan Kennedy said.
Publications such as “Saturday Night” aid in this awareness and education process and have fostered dialogue on campus. The magazine, which publishes first-hand sexual assault narratives, has a two-fold aim. First, it tries to heal and empower victims of rape. Second, it attempts to put a human face on the statistics of sexual assault.
Kennedy, one of the magazine’s editors, believes it is essential that men take a leading role in combatting sexual assault on campus and in the larger community.
“Before I got involved in ‘Saturday Night’ magazine, the issue of sexual assault was very low on my radar screen,” he said. After taking a more active role in the issue, Kennedy said he gained a new perspective on the way men act around women and the language men use when referring to women. He hopes this consciousness will be disseminated through “Saturday Night.”
To Kennedy’s knowledge, other universities do not have similar publications. The next issue of “Saturday Night”—which came out last week—will be mailed to more than 100 colleges. Kennedy hopes students at these schools will read the publication and start versions of “Saturday Night” on their respective campuses.
While men may be just a piece of sexual assault education and prevention, their participation is imperative if complete change is to be achieved, several activists said.
“The bottom line is violence against women will never stop without male allies,” Leonard said. “We can do more because more people are stepping up and speaking out and getting involved. People are owning this as a community problem.”
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