One in Four

Metro
Campus Efforts To Prevent Rape Changing Focus; Self-Defense Classes Give Way To Message to Men: Don't Do It
Amy Argetsinger
Washington Post Staff Writer

04/16/2001
The Washington Post
FINAL
B01
Copyright 2001, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- In jeans and T-shirts and casual banter, the men of One in Four tried to ease into an uncomfortable subject.

"We're not here to blame you for rape or lecture you about it," sophomore Jon Cleborne told the all-male audience of University of Virginia freshmen gathered in a dormitory study hall. Flanked by his co-presenters -- Delta Sigs, intramural athletes, all card-carrying Regular Guys -- Cleborne explained that many women confide in male friends after they have been sexually assaulted. The purpose of this little presentation, then, was "so you can be prepared in case a woman comes to you for help or support."

But by the time One in Four's hour is up, subtler messages have emerged for young men embarking on college dating careers: Communicate with a woman if your encounter turns physical. Make sure she wants to be doing what you're doing.

Or, in not so many words: Don't rape.

Women may be the usual victims, but the latest front in rape prevention and education is an effort promoted by men, and for men.

Since "date rape" was recognized as a widespread phenomenon more than 15 years ago, the typical prevention efforts -- from self-defense classes to Take Back the Night rallies to frat house warnings -- have been aimed at women and girls.

But despite years of education efforts, surveys find the incidence of acquaintance rape remains high -- 3 percent of college women report that someone attempted to force unwanted sex on them in the past year. Colleges as diverse as Brandeis University and the U.S. Naval Academy have been shaken lately by allegations of acquaintance rape. Now, a quietly growing movement is trying to take the anti-rape message to a new audience: the potential perpetrator and his pals.

One in Four, a peer education group that takes its name from one estimate of the number of women who have been assaulted, tries to teach young men to empathize with female victims of a rape. A D.C. organization, Men Can Stop Rape, is posting its messages of sexual restraint and respect -- some featuring the soccer stars of D.C. United -- at bus stops and public schools across the city. Other efforts aim to educate men about the cultural baggage of masculinity that organizers say drive some to violence and domineering behavior.

While the new programs have gained support on many campuses, experts concede that there is no evidence yet to show they change men's behavior. One in Four has drawn criticism for using a video in which a man graphically describes being raped by two other men. And the men-only emphasis has raised eyebrows among women in the field.

"It affects all of us, whether male or female, and we can educate others and be effective," said Colleen Colby, a junior who leads SAFE, another sexual-assault counseling group at the University of Virginia. "Saying only men can talk to men is absurd."

But Alan Berkowitz, a psychologist who formed one of the first all-male anti-rape programs at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, says that men talking to men is the key to changing attitudes about rape and violence.

"Sexual assault is often a product of the way men relate to each other," he said, "because they feel sexual activity is seen favorably by other men."

College campuses have served as the front lines in rape prevention efforts since the mid-1980s, when a groundbreaking and controversial study found that 27 percent of female students surveyed at 32 colleges said they had been the victim of rape or attempted rape since age 14.

The vast majority -- 80 percent -- said they had been assaulted by someone they knew, and 57 percent of the forcible sex had happened in a dating situation.

Although some experts challenged the data, the study raised awareness of date rape as a widespread problem. But the complex dynamics of date rape -- often stemming from an initially consensual encounter -- complicate efforts to stop it.

Brown University was thrown into uproar in 1990 when female students started scrawling on a bathroom wall the names of men they said had raped them or their friends. In 1993, Antioch College tried to eliminate the ambiguities that lead to unwanted sex. Its widely mocked solution was a policy requiring students to get explicit verbal permission at every step of a physical encounter.

Congress mandated nearly a decade ago that colleges develop policies to deal with sexual assault, but any education efforts aimed at men tended to be blunt and stern.

"It was very much a 'don't do it' kind of approach," said Jonathan Stillerman, co-founder of Men Can Stop Rape. "It put men on the defensive very quickly. There was no promotion of anything healthy or constructive for men."

John Foubert developed the One in Four program in the early 1990s when he ran residence life programs at the University of Richmond. The existing sexual-assault education classes, he said, "approached men as the bad guy."

His idea: "Why don't we frame them as potential helpers?"

Foubert, now an assistant dean of students at the University of Virginia, developed a set of talking points for an all-male cadre of peer educators to deliver to all-male audiences in freshmen dorms, fraternity houses and sports teams.

Before One in Four gets far into its discussion of how to help a survivor of rape ("tend to her needs," "listen," "don't blame her"), the audience is shown a videotape of a police officer graphically describing the rape of another male officer -- a composite story, Foubert says -- by two ex-convicts who corner him in an alley.

At the recent presentation in a University of Virginia dorm, freshmen listened in rapt, uncomfortable silence to the account. "It hurts. It hurts real bad," the officer says. "And you feel like you're dying. . . . You're almost positive those guys didn't wear condoms.

"What happened here? You were raped. Like 400,000 women last year."

The video is the essential heart of the presentation, Foubert says, allowing men to understand the fears and emotions a woman undergoes in a rape. Students say it helps break down some of their more cynical audiences.

"At first guys are like, 'Whatever,' " said Cleborne, 20, of Pittsburgh. "Then they watch the video, and it's dead silence. You can say whatever you want, and they're listening to you."

But the video has also generated most of the criticism aimed at One in Four. Advocates for gay men and lesbians protested that an earlier version of the video promoted homophobic attitudes; Foubert shot a new version in which the protagonist emphasizes that the assailants are known heterosexuals, with a history of domestic violence.

Others, though, object to One in Four's emphasis on men as rescuers and helpers of women. "Society in general has promoted a view of women as passive and needing men's help," Berkowitz said. "We need to do something that doesn't reinforce part of the problem."

Yet Berkowitz and an increasing number of sexual assault educators agree that sexual assault prevention seminars for men are most effective in all-male groups, an approach borne out by several studies.

"If a woman puts on a prevention program in front of men, the men will cater to the woman" -- providing the glib responses they think are expected -- "rather than be honest," said Tracy Davis, a professor of counselor education at Western Illinois University.

Davis and others, though, believe that rape prevention efforts must go further than empathy to attack the societal pressures that make men rape.

"Once you have an awareness of how [the culture] affects men's lives, then we can work with young men to begin dismantling a rape culture, to redefine masculinity in a different way," Stillerman said.

Stillerman's organization, Men Can Stop Rape, does presentations in high schools and colleges that include an exercise about attitudes toward women. Organizers draw a "continuum of harm to women" and ask young men to place cards depicting various beliefs or behaviors on that spectrum.

Items include: men who criticize a bad pitcher as one who "throws like a girl" and men who believe that when a woman says no to sex they should just push harder.

"There's no right or wrong answers," Stillerman said. "We just try to promote a dialogue among young men."

The group's public service posters, though, send a starker message, with handsome young couples intertwined and staring out at the camera, and captions such as: "My strength is not for hurting. So when I wanted to and she didn't, WE DIDN'T."

But even supporters of these efforts wonder how much difference they can make. Mary P. Koss, the University of Arizona professor of public health whose research first established the one-in-four statistic, said it's hard to measure.

Some programs, including One in Four, say research shows that men leave their workshops with healthier attitudes and greater knowledge about rape. But Koss noted that no studies can show that any of these programs actually reduce the incidence of men raping.

Sonja Geschmay Linn, coordinator of sexual assault programs at the University of Maryland, said that young people face enormous social pressure going into the dating and party scenes. "They have one-shot workshops with one message they've heard before, and then they're in the scene and they're bombarded with others," she said.

Yet efforts seem to be catching on. Men Can Stop Rape has received invitations to speak at dozens of local schools and colleges across the country. One in Four has opened chapters at James Madison, Florida State, Franklin & Marshall and Central Michigan universities. The last recently gave a well-received workshop at the Naval Academy, which is beefing up its sexual assault education programming.

And although it's not scientific, Dan Penn says he's seen evidence these talks make a difference. The president of the University of Virginia chapter often recognizes former audience members out at parties -- guys who were surprised to learn about issues such as consent and a woman's right to say no.

"I see them act different now when they go out," Penn said. http://www.washingtonpost.com Copyright © 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.