Men can stop sex abuse
Over 98 percent of all sexual assaults are perpetrated by men.
This statistic is shocking and probably a little unnerving for most men, but it deserves serious attention if we are ever to effectively confront sexual abuse. With Sexual Assault Awareness 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 “natural 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 perpetrated 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 opportunity for men to stand in solidarity with women against the problem of male violence against women and to engage 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 certain members of the University community 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 themselves than engaging in the immature behavior that we witnessed.
As participants of the vigil, we experienced 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 connection is), and there were attempts to steal some of our possessions. It is obvious that such individuals engage in these activities because they feel threatened and have no logical way to back up their opinions. SETA welcomes intelligent discussion of animal rights issues (this is one of the main purposes of the cage), but comments such as “Umm, this is a good burger, want some?” do not qualify.
This group of students (99.9 percent white males) were attempting to anger us and belittle our ideas. Instead, they proved to us that they have no educated viewpoints about why animal rights are not an important and necessary issue. We are not writing this letter to whine. Rather, we are disappointed that on a University 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