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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 22, 2000)
Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas Newsroom: (541)346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu Monday May 22,2000 Volume 101, Issue 157 EiWerakl Men, speak out Men can be victims of rape too, and most importantly, they can be vital components to stopping sex crimes against both genders Men are almost always the perpetrators of rape and can often be the vic tims of the crime, despite some long-held notions to the contrary. Orga nizations such as Sexual Assault Support Services are attempting to educate and raise awareness that rape is a major men’s issue. Men are becoming aware of the problem of rape and trying to stop it. It’s a positive trend that people accept that there is sexual assault against males and that they need support just like female victims. Men go through the same terrible shame and humiliation as their female counterparts but are often expected to be tougher and get over those feelings faster. Male-targeted sexual crimes often are not consid ered “sexual offenses” under the law but, rather, assault cases. This is testament to the old notions that men aren’t often vic tims of rape. Groups such as SASS play an important part in challeng ing those harmful stereotypes and offering a new perspec tive for those who don’t realize men can be sexual assault victims. Changing any perception is arduous, difficult work that will take tremendous effort from dedicated people, but accepting the idea of men as rape victims could be especially hard because it deals with the social roles of gender. Most of the male survivors of sexual assault cases who go to SASS were abused as children, as is the case with women. Getting people educated to that fact will ideally help prevent future assaults by making sure child victims of abuse are treated as early as possible. The classic ideas about male-on-female rape are also changing. While until recently men weren’t ex pected to do much to prevent rape except not commit the crime themselves, women were expected to take the responsibility of rape prevention and self-defense classes. Those low expectations for men and absurd ly high expectations for women in preventing sexual assault are ridiculous and should have their end in sight as signaled by groups such as Men Against Sex ism, which tries to focus attention on efforts men can make to stop rape. The group tries to redefine the classic idea of mas culinity and hopes men can be seen as unique indi viduals who want to share their emotions. They were involved in the Take Back the Night celebration and women’s issues overall. They also claim that more men are showing interest and support for women and the Take Back the Night event. These are just small first steps in tackling the prob lem of rape. The efforts by men to take responsibility for the problems of sexual assault, along with raised awareness about the role of men as victims, are note worthy efforts that should be applauded, and more importantly, continued. This editorial represents the view of the Emerald editorial board. Responses may be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu. Giovanni Salimena Emerald Letters to the editor Men can stop sex abuse Over 98 percent of all sexual as saults are perpetrated by men. This statistic is shocking and proba bly a little unnerving for most men, but it deserves serious attention if we are ever to effectively confront sexual abuse. With Sexual Assault Aware ness Month upon us, I wanted to write a letter that would help to locate men within the conversation about “violence against women” and to talk frankly about what it is that men need to do to help eradicate sexual abuse in our society. There is nothing inherent in men that causes them to rape women. It is, instead, the lessons that men learn in our society about their supposed “nat ural tendencies” that gives them the idea that sexual coercion and assault are ever justifiable. This ideology is one of the primary reasons we see so many instances of sexual abuse per petrated by men. As long as men believe that they are unable to control their sex drives, they will continue to feel justified in making sexist jokes, leering at women, coercing a drunken date to have sex and raping women. On May 23 at 2 p.m. in the EMU Ben Linder Room, there will be a workshop on “Men’s Role in Ending Sexual Assault.” This discussion for men provides a powerful opportuni ty for men to stand in solidarity with women against the problem of male violence against women and to en gage in dialogue with other men about this issue and what we as men can do to stop the violence. Sean Potts UO Men Against Sexism Aren’t we here to learn? We are writing this letter to share our disgust with the behavior of cer tain members of the University com munity regarding Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ 100 hour vigil. Although we recognize that many people believe animal rights are a controversial issue, people would be better off educating them selves than engaging in the immature behavior that we witnessed. As participants of the vigil, we ex perienced everything from rude and sarcastic remarks to having raw meat and firecrackers thrown at us. We were compared to Nazis (we are still not sure where the logic of this con nection is), and there were attempts to steal some of our possessions. It is ob vious that such individuals engage in these activities because they feel threatened and have no logical way to back up their opinions. SETA wel comes intelligent discussion of ani mal rights issues (this is one of the main purposes of the cage), but com ments such as “Umm, this is a good burger, want some?” do not qualify. This group of students (99.9 per cent white males) were attempting to anger us and belittle our ideas. In stead, they proved to us that they have no educated viewpoints about why animal rights are not an impor tant and necessary issue. We are not writing this letter to whine. Rather, we are disappointed that on a Univer sity campus there are people who would rather degrade themselves to throwing water balloons than allow themselves to learn about something that might cause them to change their ideologies and behaviors. Jennifer Neary Sara Stewart Rocky Stewart SETA Thumbs To opportunity abounding The unemploy ment rate in Lane County fell to 5.1 percent in April, reflecting a trend throughout the na tion toward more jobs, according to the Oregon Em ployment Depart ment. To surviving in style Nine students wounded in the Columbine High School shootings graduated Satur day in Columbine’s class of 2000. To a fiery faux pas interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said Thursday that the government is wholly to blame for flawed thinking that led to the Los Alamos, N.M., fires. However, Babbitt said the government would do whatever possi ble to compensate victims. To the final lie Researchers pre sented a study to the American Soci ety for Clinical On cology saying that terminally ill can cer patients rarely get a straight an swer when they ask their doctors how long they have to live. Ac cordingtothe study, doctors ei ther lie or refuse to say.
