Students and administrators alike gathered in the Student Union Building Vandal Ballroom Tuesday night for an evening of enlightenment and empowerment.
Ian Bartlett | Argonaut
Pedro Resendiz was one of many students who came to listen to Keith Edwards’ speech on how men can stop rape on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
“It does really open your eyes,” said Javier Valero, a freshmen food science major at the University of Idaho. “We can make a difference.”
The Katy Benoit Safety Forum featured Keith Edwards, a campus speaker and educator, who spoke about men’s role in preventing rape on college campuses. He said rape and sexual assault are problems that affect everyone — male and female — and it should be everybody’s responsibility to eliminate rape culture.
The speech covered a wide array of ideas, from receiving consent in sexual situations to cultural standards that perpetuate sexual abuse.
Edwards said college communities must focus on proactive actions rather than reactive behaviors. He said currently, it’s often the responsibility of women to take precautionary measures to prevent rape, such as walking home with a friend or being aware of how much they drink.
Edwards said while those messages are positive, college communities across the nation must do a better job of looking at what men can do to stop rape.
“We can say, ‘we’re going to stop rape from happening in the first place,'” he said.
Edwards said communities should work toward creating an environment where women do not have to be reactive in their behaviors. He said many college students have a misrepresentation of rapists — the depiction of an unrecognizable man waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting woman.
In reality, he said stranger rape is relatively rare, as about 84 percent of women who report surviving rape or attempted rape knew their perpetrator before the attack.
“It was the homecoming date, it was the lab partner,” he said.
Edwards said many men who do commit rape crimes are not aware that their sexual actions are illegal and constitute the legal interpretation of rape. He said many men have grown up in a culture that perpetuates rape, and do not understand what it means to get consent.
“We have been very well miseducated,” he said.
Edwards said men should make sure they receive informed consent from their partners at every step in the process. In one of the many metaphors of the night, Edwards compared getting consent to approaching a yellow traffic light. When the green light switches to yellow, most hit the gas to get through the intersection even though the light signals drivers to slow down. Edwards said popular culture has taught men to speed up in sexual situation, regardless of hesitation from a partner.
To prevent this “speeding” situation, he said men should stop, communicate and get verbal consent with their partners before moving forward.
“Lack of communication is a disaster,” he said. “And it leads to a lot of messed up situations.”
The speech resonated with a number of men in the audience.
“As a man, you can affect things and change things,” said Aron Oliveras, a freshman animal science major at UI.
Oliveras said he has seen many of the cultural behaviors that perpetuate a rape culture in today’s society. He said he’s going to bring up the topic with many of his friends to spark conversations about what it means to get consent.
Valero said he learned a lot from the speech about what men can do to stop rape. He said he felt empowered by Edwards’ words, enough to share his thoughts and ideas with other men in his life.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]