Tag Archives: MAC
The Men’s Anti-Violence Council members have presented numerous workshops about technology and safety. We’ve mainly focused on the ways in which software and hardware can be used to stalk and monitor individuals. However, we rarely get a chance to highlight technology developed to improve campus safety.
Rave Mobile Safety created the product Rave Guardian which offers some unique services and abilities through your cell phone. Basically, Rave Guardian is software that allows users to create and upload profile information. When a student makes an emergency call to campus police, the entire profile is displayed along with their location. That information can also be forwarded to responding officers. This could be extremely helpful in situations when callers are incapable of providing information due to the nature of the emergency or if they are unsure of their location. It seems like this would significantly cut down on time spent on the phone and provide accurate, valuable information to responding officers.
Below is an image of potential information that a user could enter into their profile which can be accessed and modified online. Being involved in the program is voluntary and students decide whether or not to participate. (Click on image to enlarge)
Rave Guardian has two additional features: Panic Call and Timer Mode. Panic Call lets a student send their entire profile to campus police with the touch of a single button. Timer Mode lets students set a timer, that if not disabled, automatically dials campus police. Together, this product offers some impressive features. Instead of simply receiving a phone number and a hurried description, officers would have a color photo, important identifying information and the student’s exact location.
Rave Mobile Safety also offers products to send campus-wide alerts, improve 9-1-1 services, and allow eyewitness information submitted via text message.
2 comments | tags: 9-1-1, campus safety, cell phone, MAC, men's anti-violence council, Rave Guardian, Rave Mobile Safety, software, technology | posted in anti-violence, technology
That is the title of the excellent piece written by one of our newest MAC members, Anthony Ferguson Jr. Anthony originally wrote this piece for his blog, Young, Black & Educated, but it was so good, that we wanted to repost the entire piece here on the MAC blog. Check it out below.
As I write this I ask myself, “How can I be a man when I’ve never seen one?
From the time we are boys, all the way up to the time we become men, the term, “boys will be boys” is used as an excuse for the male species to get away with just about anything. We are groomed from a very early age by family, friends, and our peers to act a certain way. No tears, no fears, and no emotions. We are taught that being emotional is a ‘girl’ thing, and even more so a thing for the weak. In our society where we glorify the concept of ‘survival of the fittest’, we police ourselves so that we seem manlier. Instead of being ourselves, we look for those things that will prove to others that we are all man.
Our society tells us that money, power, and sex is the equation for absolute manhood. It teaches us that solving our problems through psychical altercations and out toughing another man is the way to prove how much of a man we really are. If a kid doesn’t play sports, listen to the right kinds of music, and doesn’t stick his tongue out every time a female walks by, he is considered less of a man. We use words like, fag, homo, p-ssy, weak, and girly to downgrade other men who just don’t seem to fit inside the guidelines for being what we consider a man. We are in essence emasculating each other to the point where this artificial manhood is something that is desired by all, but unattainable unless a person is willing to become almost completely savage to fit the criteria of what our society deems a man.
So how can we break this curse that has plagued many young men?
We must first admit there is a problem. Next our community has to teach its young men how to connect to another person on an emotional level. Many young males in the African American community grow up without a father or any other strong male figure in their lives and they never learn that telling another man that he loves him is okay. Instead what he sees is love only being giving by the women in his life, and he equates love with being feminine. This creates an even bigger problem for the males in our society. We now have our men thinking that being feminine is a bad thing and a sign of weakness so when they actually get involved with a female it’s hard for that men to accept her as his equal. He views her as an object, someone who has been put on this earth to serve and cater to his needs. This outlook of inferiority towards females is what leads us to the overwhelming number of broken homes in our communities. We are in a vicious cycle that is crippling, and preventing the black family from thriving. We must ignore what society tells us a man is, and we must embrace actual manhood. We do so by teaching boys that a man takes responsibility for his own actions, and a man isn’t afraid to admit he is wrong. We teach him that a man works hard to provide for his family and community. More importantly, a man leads by example.
You can find the original post here.
2 comments | tags: Anthony Ferguson Jr., MAC, manhood, masculinity, men's anti-violence council, mentor, role model, Young Black & Educated | posted in healthy relationships, masculinity, mentoring
Help us spread the word about the upcoming Men’s Anti-Violence Council (MAC) training for new volunteers. Training starts on Wednesday, February 9th from 6-9 p.m. If you are interested, complete a volunteer application and bring it with you to the training. The training is held at the Women’s Resource and Action Center. MAC is open to men from the campus and community. See the description below for more information about MAC. If you have any questions, email me at jerrodkoon@gmail.com or comment below.
The Men’s Anti-Violence Council (MAC) is a volunteer group at The University of Iowa. We provide an opportunity for men to be an active part of the solution regarding violence prevention. We teach bystanders how to intervene safely when faced with a difficult, inappropriate or offensive situation. Everyone has a voice in their community. MAC members send messages about what is appropriate by speaking up, taking action, and modeling healthy behaviors. As men, we have strength and we have a voice. Positive changes do not happen when good people remain silent.
We discuss masculinity, gender roles, violence prevention, domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault. Besides facilitating discussions, we also take action. We facilitate workshops, film discussions, fundraisers, rallies, and other programs about masculinity, mentoring, harassment, bystander intervention skills, bullying, violence, and technology and stalking. MAC members have presented workshops and programming to over 1,800 students and community members. We collaborate with numerous groups to ensure that our community and campus is an environment where everyone is safe and respected.
Leave a comment | tags: men's anti-violence council, MAC, bystander intervention, men's antiviolence, antiviolence, volunteer training | posted in bystander intervention, MAC News, masculinity, anti-violence, social justice, education
I don’t have a lot of time this morning, but I just wanted to put up a quick post about the Stop Street Harassment event last night with Holly Kearl at The University of Iowa. Despite some technical difficulties, the event went really well and we had pretty good attendance. I am so grateful that Holly was able to stop by and share her expertise about street harassment. She was wonderful to work with and I hope we can continue building on what we accomplished last night. Here is an article about the event in The Daily Iowan.
Holly introduced me to this cartoon last night. What a great illustration about the incorrect assumption that street harassment is just a compliment, which minimizes the negative impact on the recipient. The artist is Barry Deutsch. You can find this work and more by him, here. Please consider supporting his work. He is someone who is trying to raise awareness about these issues through his art.
I’ll post a more thorough review about last night’s event and compile some resources about street harassment in a longer post later this weekend. In the meantime, stop by Holly’s blog www.stopstreetharassment.com to learn more.
3 comments | tags: Barry Deutsch, bystander interventions, cartoon, comic, Holly Kearl, MAC, men's anti-violence council, sexual harassment, Stop Street Harassment, street harassment, The Daily Iowan, The University of Iowa, violence prevention | posted in anti-violence, bystander intervention, cartoon, education, humor, sexual harassment, street harassment
I’m really excited to announce that author and activist, Holly Kearl will be at The University of Iowa this month to discuss street harassment. The Men’s Anti-Violence Council is cosponsoring the event with the UI Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. The event is free and open to the public. It is on Thursday October, 21 at 7:15 p.m. in 100 Philips Hall.
Street harassment doesn’t have a formal definition. I find it easy to think of it how Holly describes it on her blog, sexual harassment that happens in public. A good start is to think of all of the behaviors and language that would be inappropriate or illegal at work or in the classroom. It could be disrespectful, unwelcome, threatening, harassing and is most often of a sexual nature.
Holly’s lecture will begin with several students from the university describing their experiences and reactions to street harassment. Hopefully, we’ll get a discussion going about the potential intersection of race, class, perceived sexual orientation and gender on the occurence of street harassment. There will be time for Q&A after the presentation.
One of the most important aspects of Holly’s work, and what I am the most excited about, is how to create an effective response in reducing and preventing the behavior. Discussing how recipients, witnesses and the community can respond is a major focus of our work at MAC. Stop by and join in the discussion. You can download the flier here.
Visit Holly’s blog: www.stopstreetharassment.com
Read about her book: http://www.greenwood.com/books/printFlyer.aspx?sku=A2949C
Leave a comment | tags: Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, Holly Kearl, MAC, men's anti-violence council, sexual harassment, street harassment, The University of Iowa, WRAC | posted in anti-violence, bystander intervention, education, gender roles, hate crimes, healthy relationships, heterosexism, homophobia, local news, MAC News, sexual assault, sexual harassment, social justice, street harassment, violence
Check out these new posters from our local Rape Victim Advocacy Program (RVAP). This is part of their Stand Up. Don’t Stand By campaign aimed at raising awareness about violence and potentially harmful behaviors among middle school and high school students. These are some of the best looking graphics I have seen in violence prevention materials. Check out the images in the slide show below. You can also download high quality pdf that includes all of the posters by clicking here.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Many thanks to the Kristins from RVAP for creating and sharing this wonderful resource! Have you found or created any sweet looking or clever anti-violence material? If so, contact us so that we can share them with others.
1 comment | tags: anti-violence, bystander intervention, MAC, men's anti-violence council, Rape Victim Advocacy Program, RVAP, social marketing campaign, Stand Up. Don't Stand By | posted in advertising, anti-violence, bystander intervention, cartoon, education, healthy relationships, local news
MAC wanted to create a packet of material for our RAs to display on bulletin boards in the dorms. Our Rape Victim Advocacy Program has had a lot of success with this approach so we decided to create some materials about bystander interventions and violence prevention.
The problem was that I couldn’t find any existing product to use as a model or template. There wasn’t a single available pdf or powerpoint to modify into a bulletin board. I even visited online repositories of RA bulletin boards. There were hundreds of bulletin board examples, ideas, and templates. There was everything from Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse to Ramen Noodle Recipes but nothing about violence prevention.
So we created one. We took an example on a trifold foam board to the RA fair and had over half of our RAs on campus sign up. We color coded the categories (Things to know, How to help, and Who to call) for easy assembly and mailed each RA a packet. All they had to do was hang it up. RAs are responsible for changing their bulletin board twice a year so this material could be displayed on bulletin boards across campus for an entire semester.
Feel free to use and modify the pdf below to meet the needs of your group. If your group has created any materials that you would be willing to share with others, send them to us and we’ll post them on the site with your information attached.
Leave a comment | tags: anti-violence, anti-violence bulletin board, bulletin boards, bystander intervention bulletin board, MAC, men's anti-violence council, RA, RVAP, violence prevention | posted in advertising, anti-violence, bystander intervention, cartoon, domestic violence, education, humor, MAC resources, sexual assault, social justice, stalking
So I stumbled across this really great anti-violence/gender equality website from Harvard the other day. I mistyped Shira Tarrant’s book Men Speak Out (wonderful book by the way, check it out!) by searching for Men Speak Up.
What I found was a very crisp, well-designed website with some great, authentic videos of why Harvard men care about gender equality. The layout is easy to navigate. The content is succinct and engaging. It definitely looks like they are on the right track. I’d like to see a little more content added to the Take Action Section. Maybe they’ll get in touch with MAC and we can help them fill up that page!
I could tell you all about it but you can watch the video below and they can tell you themselves.
You can check out the rest of the videos here. One of my favorite quotes from the videos is “Social progress is made when people come together across lines of difference.”
2 comments | tags: gender equality, Harvard, MAC, Men Speak Out, Men Speak Up, men's anti-violence council, Shira Tarrant | posted in anti-violence, bystander intervention, education, gender roles, healthy relationships, masculinity, social justice
Training to be a member of the Men’s Anti-Violence Council beings on September 9th. We have created a space for men from the University of Iowa campus and surrounding communities to create programming aimed at reducing violence, especially domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.
We are not just focused on raising awareness and providing information about violence. MAC is interested in primary prevention, meaning that we want to keep violence from occurring in the first place. By engaging and training members of the community, MAC members work to make our community a safer place for everyone.
Our discussion includes issues related to masculinity, mentoring and leadership as well as bystander intervention skills. We want to end silence about violence. Instead of sitting on the sidelines complaining about the problem, MAC members are interested in being an active part of the solution.
Volunteer training dates, times and location
- Orientation Training: September 9, 6-9 p.m. at WRAC
- MAC Training: September 16, 6-9 p.m. at the IMU
- Cultural Competency Training: Sept 23, 6-9 p.m. Jones Commons, Lindquist Center
- MAC training: Sept. 30, 5-7 p.m at WRAC
Download a volunteer application here. MAC members also attend a weekly meeting during the semester to plan our programs. As of right now, that meeting is scheduled for Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. Our first meeting is on September 30.
Take a look at our brochure and newsletter for more information about what we do. If you have any questions, email me at jerrodkoon@gmail.com.
MAC brochure
MAC Newsletter
Leave a comment | tags: anti-violence, bystander interventions, jerrod koon, MAC, men's anti-violence council, volunteering, women's center, WRAC | posted in advertising, anti-violence, bystander intervention, domestic violence, education, healthy relationships, local news, MAC News, masculinity, mentoring, News, sexual assault, social justice, stalking, violence
I’m not encouraging you to out or label your friendly neighborhood dorks. (However, I imagine that anyone engaged in a public debate about the superiority of LOTR versus Harry Potter, while in full costume, would probably proudly endorse that label.) I am encouraging you to challenge or clarify the incorrect, offensive and often confusing use of words like fag, gay, whore, rape, pussy, etc. These words are often used to police gender, sexual activity and sexual orientation behaviors. My experience intervening has taught me that the minority of people are intentionally malicious. Most use these words automatically, without questioning the intent, meaning or impact. If people are truly unaware about the impact of their words and behaviors on those around them, it may take an intervention to create change. If they are malicious, your intervention may not change their behavior, but it teaches them that they do not speak for you or your community.
Has anyone had any particular successes or barriers to challenging offensive language? Do you want more resources or examples about how to intervene? MAC presents an entire workshop about bystander interventions if you need any resources.
2 comments | tags: bystander intervention cartoons, cartoons, comics, dorks, fags, Harry Potter, LOTR, MAC, men's anti-violence council, offensive language, stick figures | posted in anti-violence, bystander intervention, cartoon, humor, social justice
