Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Ben Atherton-Zeman - Feminist, Actor and Husband" <>]

hi, folks!  I'm not a researcher nor an academic, but I have facilitated 
plenty of rape and SA prevention trainings.  My experience with participants 
in those trainings is that "bystanders" are more often willing to intervene 
is along the lines of pulling a guy off a woman while he's raping her - or a 
guy is leaving a party with an obviously intoxicated woman.  The domestic 
violence equivalent is the common question: "What do we do if a guy's beating 
up his wife in a bar?"  

In both cases, I try to stress the point that the important time to intervene 
is not when you're observing the physical assault or the obvious violation.  
The important time to intervene is with rape-supportive behavior - sexist 
jokes, objectification of women, men interrupting and belittling women, 
workplace sexual harassment, calling women "accusers," etc.  

So I want to echo Angela Brus' request and add: is there a study that 
measures one's willingness to intervene in THAT way?  If not, can we do one?  
:)

Until the violence stops, Ben.  

Ben Atherton-Zeman, Acton MA USA
Actor, Comedian, Feminist and Husband
Presenting a One-Man Play: "Voices of Men," www.voicesofmen.org (video clips 
take a second to load)
Booking information: 978-263-3254

Quote of the Month, November 2007:
"If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a 
mosquito." 
-- Anita Roddick, activist and founder of the Body Shop, 1942-2007.