Breaking News: MEN CAN STOP RAPE!

While avoiding the hundreds of things I had to do this week, I decided to visit StumbleUpon (one of my favorite procrastination websites). Clicking through some of the fashion pages, juvenile comics, and uplifting quotes, I stumbled upon a page that caught my eye immediately. It wasn’t a typical feminist blog or website, but it definitely screamed feminism! It was titled Men Can Stop Rape: Creating Cultures Free from Violence. Well, I thought, “Yes, yes they can”…and they are indeed doing that.

Created in 1997 and centered in Washington D.C., an organization called Men Can Stop Rape has grown to become of the leading forces in preventing violence against women and has made the call to redefine masculinity and male strength. They focus on reaching males aged 11 to 22 in order to change their perspective of women and society’s accepted view of masculinity. This organization was created because the majority of prevention efforts for rape are directed at women, giving the impression that women are to be blamed for their own rape. The founders of Man Can Stop Rape want to change that impression and shift the responsibility of deterring harm away from women by promoting healthy, nonviolent masculinity.

Men Can Stop Rape has been recognized as one of the most innovative programs in the United States. So why don’t more people know about it?!

As a feminist studying these issues, I had always known that organizations like this existed and that men were continuously joining the fight to stop gender violence and discrimination. But I also knew that most people have no idea of the tremendous impact that these men were making on feminism and violence. It becomes obvious that this group has not had enough exposure by simply looking at their Facebook page. This life-changing group page has 18,320 ‘likes’, while Justin Bieber’s page has 36,080,430…Now I know Justin Bieber is an inspiration to 13 year-olds, but I would hope that even Bieber himself sees how big of a discrepancy there is between the two.

The organization is a trend-setter in third-wave feminism and in men’s feminism, so it’s understandable that it’s not as well-known or even accepted. But the creators of Men Can Stop Rape know to get the word out by looking at their future. They not only target young males to educate them but to involve them in the new movement against sexual violence. They have created programs for high school students and an award-winning organization for college males called Campus Men of Strength. Campus Men of Strength, abbreviated MOST, has been active on college campuses for 4 years since its creation. Even after 4 years, however, MOST is only found in 9 universities in America. Although that’s better than being nonexistent, MOST needs to be on campuses everywhere, including JMU.

JMU itself has a large campus and with 60% women to 40% men, there’s no doubt that rape or sexual violence occurs somewhere within our community. In fact, 1 in 4 women on college campuses have been victims of rape and nearly 90% of the women knew their rapist. As much as I love to think that my fellow women here are tough and can avoid these situations, it still happens. And being informed is the first step to preventing situations like rape and with help from organizations like Men Can Stop Rape, everyone can be informed.

Men Can Stop Rape and MOST belongs on every campus and every man at JMU, I hope, will see the desperate need that universities have for sexual violence prevention.

Visit http://www.mencanstoprape.org/  to find out about how you can help out and create one for our women and men at JMU.

‘Like’ their Facebook page as well, http://www.facebook.com/mcsrape.  And yes, Justin Bieber, that means you too…