Men Can Stop Rape (MCSR) just launched a new bystander intervention poster campaign called Where Do You Stand? MCSR previously had the popular My Strength is Not For Hurting campaign. During the past two years, MAC members distributed hundreds of those posters and received numerous positive responses from the message about men getting active in ending violence against women.

The new campaign features men with messages about how to take a stand and be an active bystanders. The majority of audience members in our bystander intervention training want strategies and language about how to get involved. It’s not that they don’t care. It’s often that they don’t know what to do or say. Follow the link(s) about to access the new poster campaign and ordering information. If you have any links to other effective and engaging awareness raising campaigns about violence prevention, send them our way!

Check out this great stalking awareness campaign called Stalking: Know It. Name It. Stop It. Not only do they have promotional materials to raise awareness about stalking, there are also numerous resources related to safety planning, outreach materials, and information specific to responders like law enforcement and prosecutors.

Last year, the Men’s Anti-Violence Council developed a workshop about commonly exploited technology used to stalk and harass individuals. It has been extremely popular and we have presented it at numerous conferences and workshops. We’ll be presenting it next month at The Big Ten Counseling Center conference regarding how this topic relates to counseling centers and college students. Stay tuned for when we upload the Power Point from that presentation.

What concerns me more than Jay’s actions are the millions of fans that buy (or download) his music while blindly accepting the warped gender dynamics reinforced in his songs. These are the people who, on a daily basis, are presented with opportunities to shift the power dynamics that Daddy Hov fears his daughter will have to confront.

Facebookers (myself included) are “liking” Prof. Watkins’ post as if doing so delivers a death blow to gender oppression. Newsflash!!! It doesn’t. And that means we have work to do. Gender oppression extends far beyond saying b&%@! As I climb off my soapbox, please indulge me by educating yourself on gender oppression and gender equality. Here are a few websites and videos to get you started:

Stop Street Harassment

Men Can Stop Rape

Stop Sexist Remarks

Miss Representation (2011)

Then put this newly-acquired knowledge into practice! Look for groups/organizations in your area that fight gender oppression. If one doesn’t exist, start one. There are also online initiatives that you can get involved in. You can contribute to a blog and spread awareness online. You can create art that educates us on this issue. You can create an app that supports gender justice. The possibilities are endless!

It is easy to sit back and critique Jay-Z without being self-reflexive. However, we perpetuate and/or survive gender oppression every…single…day. Now is the time to change the game. What are you going to do?

D. Carter

Previously,  “Forcible rape” had been defined by the UCR SRS as “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will.”  That definition, unchanged since 1927, was outdated and narrow. It only included forcible male penile penetration of a female vagina.”

The new definition, “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” provides the flexibility to classify someone as a victim regardless of gender and accounts for rape that occurs while individuals are incapacitated, which includes rapes that occur without physical force.

One of the major reasons that these changes were made was because of the efforts of sexual assault advocates and their public campaigns. These changes allow for more accurate reporting and tracking of rape on a national level.

From 2008 to 2010, William Cassidy harassed Alyce Zeoli through Twitter sending her over 8,000 tweets. He criticized her looks, made fun of her religion, described graphic ways in which she could die, and repeatedly told her to commit suicide. Zeoli blocked his accounts but Cassidy just created another one. In 2010, Zeoli reported the harassment and the FBI pressed charges against Cassidy for stalking Zeoli and  causing her “substantial emotional distress.”

However, this week federal judge Roger W. Titus, dismissed the case stating, “while Mr. Cassidy’s speech may have inflicted substantial emotional distress, the government’s indictment here is directed squarely at protected speech: anonymous, uncomfortable Internet speech addressing religious matters.” Apparently Judge Titus doesn’t really understand what  Twitter is. He compared it to a colonial bulletin board where if you didn’t like something, you don’t read it. News flash Judge Titus, Twitter is no different from a text message, email, or phone call. It is direct contact through electronic means with another individual. Just telling someone to “ignore it, turn it off, or don’t look it” is about as good as telling a stalking victim to just block the phone number, quit their job, or simply ignore the animal head left in a box on the front porch. The message this sends to victims is ridiculously callous, “If you don’t like it, too bad, just ignore it.”

However, there was some protection from harassment and stalking enforced this week. A judge in Minnesota ordered a man to take down his “revenge” blog about his ex-girlfriend because individuals have a “right to be free from harassment”and instated a 50 year restraining order! But wait, isn’t a blog is like a colonial bulletin board? No, no it’s not.

Anyone in a position of enforcing or creating rules/laws/policies about harassment, stalking, bullying, or any other inappropriate conduct through electronic/Internet/technological means should have a basic understanding of what the Internet is and how social media services on it function. People should be protected from those who intimidate, threaten, harass, monitor, record, impersonate, and stalk them regardless of the method.

Recent NY Times article repeats what we already know, nearly 1 in 5 women int he U.S. have been sexually assaulted.

Rape in the U.S. military. “A female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be attacked by a fellow soldier than killed in enemy fire.”

Moving online video about surviving bullying and the importance of supportive family, friends, and hope.

This video is from last month’s Men’s Institute at the University of Northern Iowa

To get involved in this project, contact Derrais Carter: derrais-carter@uiowa.edu

However, Up with Chris Hayes  convened a panel to discuss the situation in a novel way, namely in relationship to the power and financial influence of college football on the the campus and community. (Hint: Of the entire annual athletic revenue of $116 million at Penn State, $72 million of that is from football). How do you hold a powerful institution and the leaders accountable? The discussion also likened the Penn State situation to the way child abuse and rape accusations were handled by the Catholic Church (also, the Boys Scouts of America have done the exact same thing).

One of my favorite quotes from the clip is, “We should not just talk about the (child) predation but discuss the sickness that feeds it (referring to silence, ignoring, coverup, and denying about child sexual abuse/rape).

Check out the clip below for an interesting and in-depth discussion about the issue.

If you want to learn more about the scandal, here are links to the timeline and grand jury report. Regardless of your thoughts about these current allegations, we need to do what we can to end systems and policies that allow sexual assault and rape to go unreported for decades. We shouldn’t be focused on protecting the image on institutions and “legends.” Legendary people protect others and speak for those who may not be able to speak or advocate for themselves.

The Circle of 6 app lets you designate six individuals to be in your “circle.” Once you have selected your six allies, you can select different ways to ask for their support. If you tap the car icon, a text message to come and get you along with your GPS location is sent. Tapping the phone icon sends a message to call the sender to interrupt the current situation. The chat icon connects the sender with their circle so that they can get advice about a situation. A danger button automatically calls a national safety hotline. Once it is set up, it would take a user two taps in the app to get help. Take a look at some of the screen shots below. This looks like a great way to stay connected and get help in a dangerous or potentially dangerous situation.

The app is a prototype and is set to be released on the app markets across a variety of operating systems in January, 2012. You can support and stay updated about the app on their Facebook page.