ˇ 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.

ˇ 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.

ˇ 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 .

ˇ 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.

ˇ 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.

ˇ 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.

ˇ 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. .

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

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

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

ˇ actively and caringly supporting rape survivors

ˇ not engaging in prostitution

ˇ not using pornography or tolerating its display in the workplace

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

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

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

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

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