Some of the feminist activism that happens on this campus ostracizes males who would gladly lend what help they can, by accusing them of being the problem. As a result, I have trouble supporting some of the tactics used at DePauw.
Whether it's conscious or not, the ostracizing makes some men hesitant to even go to an event that includes topics that men should be learning about just as much as women. Sometimes going to these events places men in a predicament that will make them feel like less of a man. It's great that we are educating people on the statistics of sexual violence. But why not also speak on how men can become knowledgeable not only of how sexual assault occurs but also on how to avoid anything close to sexual assault as a friend, stranger or acquaintance?
Furthermore, it is not wrong to preach self-defense; we should all know how to defend ourselves. We fail to properly advocate the parallel issue of instilling within our society a sufficient morality to prevent this harm in the first place. We must achieve both before the tragedy will begin to be resolved.
Feminist classes that do not include men are not good techniques of isolation. How is this morbid issue supposed to be solved without what some feminist claim to be the root of the cause? As men, some of us are trying to educate ourselves and become knowledgeable of what is going wrong within our society and culture. Why are we shunned from where the knowledge is being taught?
Why can't two organizations of different genders that promote and speak the same thing come together? We should be able to speak on the issues that are at hand together. There are a lot of things that women can teach men, and some things that women can learn from men about the same conversation that is currently occurring in two different places.
I want to make this clear; I acknowledge that women are sexually assaulted more frequently than men. It is extremely wrong and immoral to sexually assault or harass a person of either gender. The point I'm trying to make is that both genders need to come together and combat rape as a unified cause.
No one wants to hear it so I'll just throw it out there: perpetuating the idea that males are always the rapists and that females are always the victims is sexist and detrimental to the issue at hand. Education about sexual assault is very important. If we make this education more readily accessible to members of both genders, we can combat this terrible problem together.
-Brea is a sophomore studio art major from the Bronx, NY.