Rape: What We Can Do

EuroPROFEM - The European Men Profeminist Network http://www.europrofem.org 

 

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29en_mas ... Masculinity

 

Rape: What We Can Do

 

Jack C. Straton
C/o University Studies
Portland State University
Portland, OR, 97207-0751

· Work towards creating a coordinated community response to sexual violence ·

Demand that the criminal justice system arrest, prosecute and convict men who rape including acquaintance, date, and marital rapists ·

Support school-based education efforts about sexual violence. · Increase sensitivity and accountability to victim/survivors and their advocates ·

Support survivor services with money and/or volunteering. ·

Believe survivors stories. Rape is falsely reported 2% of the time, the same as for other violent crimes ·

Don't engage in victim blaming or tolerate it from others. ·

Don't insist that survivors report, or not report the rape; educate ourselves about options for survivors and share that information with them. ·

Care about, listen to and support survivors. · Work on eradicating all forms of oppression (sexism, racism, homophobia, etc.). No one is free when others are oppressed.

Rape and Rape Related Behaviors :

· Sexual Harassment: The main purpose of sexual harassment is to exert men's power over women; that power is backed up by the threat of rape. Sexual harassment is experienced by approximately 85% of women in the work-force.

· Date Rape: Almost half of rape is date rape; date rapists are seldom arrested. It is rare for men to be prosecuted for date rape- more rare to be convicted. Repeatedly we are learning that the more a woman knows the rapist, the less likely she is to report the incident(s) to anyone-let alone the police.

· Marital Rape: Marital rape happens in one of every seven marriages. 59% of battered women are raped by their abusers. Oregon was the first state to pass a law against marrital rape, but it has been tragically underused .

· Incest/Child Sexual Abuse: One in three girls and one in six or seven boys are sexually abused before their eighteenth birthday. The vast majority of perpetrators are men; few suffer any negative consequences for their actions.

· Prostitution: One cannot buy sexual consent. Prostitution is bought and sold rape, not a "victimless crime." Women trapped in systems of prostitution are raped (by the legal definition) more often than any other group of women. They report even less frequently than women who are not prostituted. The rapist of prostituted women is even less likely to suffer any negative consequences.

· Pornography: Pornography is pictures of prostitution; it eroticizes inequality and often portrays women enjoying rape. Always, it is degrading and dehumanizing. Many young men have their first sexual experience with pornography. Pornography plays a huge part in the construction of male sexual identity; it socializes men to sexually objectify, sexually harass and rape.

· The Military: Sexual harassment and Tailhook, rape and Okinawa, higher rates of battering and marital rape than the general population, prostitution/ pornography, rape as a weapon of war, and male bonding run rampant in the military which epitomizes the manhood training and gender relations of male supremacy. .

Why Most Women Don't Report:

There are many reasons why rape is one of the most unreported crimes; they include

· the fear of retaliation

· the fear of police and the legal system (sometimes described as being "raped again.")

· she's been socialized to feel partly to blame for the rape

· She may feel she can not endure the grueling legal process

· She may feel she will be blamed by others for what happened to her

· She may think that the legal system will not choose to prosecute because she knew him, she was drinking, she was being prostituted, etc.

For Survivors of Rape

· Whatever you did to survive was exactly right.

· Individual counseling and support groups are available.

· You don't have to report if you do not want to.

· Victims of Crime assistance money may be available.

· Build a support network.

· Learn about rape trauma syndrome and how it impacts you; learn what your triggers are.

· It's not your fault; no matter what the circumstances, you didn't deserve what happened to you.

· You can file a civil suit.

· You may file a third-party report.

· Common emotional responses to rape include sleeplessness, lack of concentration, eating disorders, nightmares, fear, loss of self-confidence, stress related illness, feelings of grief and despair and others.

 

for more information contact:

Some ways men can take responsibility in their personal lives to help stop rape are:

· ensuring through direct communication that all the sexual activity they participate in is truly consensual

· ensuring that survivor service organizations have the funding to stay open... give money! volunteer!

· actively and caringly supporting rape survivors

· not engaging in prostitution

· not using pornography or tolerating its display in the workplace

· never sexually harassing women or tolerating sexual harassment by other men.

· interrupting sexist jokes and comments, not bonding with other men by putting women down.

· teaching and role-modeling for young men respectful treatment of women as their equals

· exposing the connections between sexism, racism, homophobia and other expressions of oppression in the ways they all support rape culture.

for more information contact:

RAPE PROTEST

We are here today to draw attention to the pervasive problem of rape in our society and the failure of our communities and our criminal justice system to adequately address that problem.

  • 1 in 4 women will be raped during her lifetime.

  • 73% of women limit the places they will go because of fear of rape.

  • 84% of rapes are committed by someone known by the victim/survivor.

  • 2000 rapes are reported in the U.S. each day.

  • Only 1 of every 10 rapes is reported.

  • Approximately 2% of rapists are convicted of rape.

PROTEST RAPE

Created by
Jack C. Straton
C/o University Studies
Portland State University
Portland, OR, 97207-0751
503-725-4227
Feel free to replace my contact info with your own.

Jack Straton

 

With a background in jazz, quantum theory, and diversity training, Jack Straton infuses his classes with creativity, interdisciplinary experience, and interpersonal connection.

Jack Straton earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from the University of Oregon in 1977, worked as a professional jazz drummer for three years, and then returned to the U of O in the 1980s to earn a doctorate in quantum theory. Both as a volunteer and professional diversity trainer over the past 18 years, he has presented several hundred workshops on ending sexual assault and racism. Jack founded Men Against Rape groups in Eugene, Oregon, Washington, D.C., and Manhattan, Kansas. He has published extensively in professional journals from his research in Quantum Scattering Theory, Gender Equity, and Diversity Training Methods. He has served as co-chair of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) and, as coordinator of the NOMAS Task Group on Child Custody Issues, is recognized as one of the leading writers and speakers in the country with expertise on ethical and public policy issues related to the overlap between child custody, child abuse, and woman abuse.

Jack has been teaching Inquiry courses at PSU since 1995, currently Popular Culture and Pathways to Sustainability and Justice, always seeking to infuse them with creativity, interdisciplinary experience, and interpersonal connection.

Publications

Analytically Continued Hypergeometric Expression of the Incomplete Beta Function

The Incomplete Gamma Function Expressed as a Sum of Macdonald Functions

 

Jack C. Straton, Associate Professor, Physics & University Studies (Photo © Brent Hirack)

E-Mail: <straton [at} pdx.edu>

http://web.pdx.edu/~straton/ 

The Myth of the "Battered Husband Syndrome - Filed under Ending Men's Violence, Paper. By Jack C. Straton, Ph.D.

http://www.nomas.org/node/107 

 


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