It was a bittersweet moment to read the editorial in Wednesday’s Emerald (“Women cannot assume they are safe on campus,” ODE, Feb. 13). While I appreciate the information about services available to women and the acknowledgment that our campus climate does pose a significant risk to the safety of women, all of the information that was provided was in reference to women changing or altering their own behavior to prevent attack.
Why was there no acknowledgment of ways that our campus can, in fact, become safer? And why was there no information about appropriate behavior for men?
Methods for improving safety for women on campus are continuously addressed. Walking in packs, getting a ride, not going out after dark, carrying a cell phone or a whistle, knowing your neighbors and a barrage of other suggestions have been made indicating ways that women on this campus can protect themselves from attacks.
The argument was made in the editorial yesterday that women might have a false sense of security on this campus. If that is the case, which for some women
and men it very well may be, then the advice was well received
and given.
However, by limiting advice and conversation to simply the preventative behavior of women, only the symptoms and not the actual cause of this campuswide, statewide, national and international epidemic of inequality and gender discrimination are being addressed. To make actual, concrete steps forward, we need to advocate for the self-corrective behavior of all, particularly men, in creating a safer campus community for all.
Sexual harassment and assault need to be the primary focus for both men and women. It’s not simply enough to know that it exists and that steps can be taken to avoid women’s exposure to it. We need to find ways to form an army to make an assault on the mentality that it is acceptable at all.
Men should be just as disgusted by the behavior of their peers and should spend the majority of their time creating a peer-induced stigma that will at least begin to look at an issue that is currently being masked by continuously focusing on ways that women can protect themselves, and not on ways that men can stop it from happening to begin with. Responsibility lies with all members of this community, and the issue should be handled accordingly.