Men Campaign Against Rape

Over the past week, members of Harvard Men Against Rape have been encouraging other men to don the white ribbon as a symbol of their support for the fight against sexual assault.

Their efforts are part of the nationwide White Ribbon Campaign recognized at Harvard this week, organized in concert with the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April.

“The Campaign is a visible sign of men’s support against violence against women,” OSAPR Prevention Specialist Seth D. Avakian said. “Our goal is to help men become part of the solution instead of part of the problem by engaging them as active bystanders.”

Director of OSAPR Sarah A. Rankin expanded on the role of the active bystander, noting that men’s involvement is crucial to preventing sexual assault.

“Being a bystander is about educating yourself and knowing what you can do when someone is about do something risky or stupid,” she said. “Most men are typically going to respond better when it’s another man challenging their ideas that it’s acceptable to have sex with a girl who’s unconscious.”

Matthew P. Vollenweider ’11, a member of HMAR, also said that making other men think about the issue of sexual assault is a primary goal and added that he had observed two principle reactions during this week’s Campaign.

“Some people think it’s good that we’re talking about this in a public setting, and other people say that it’s a noncontroversial issue,” Vollenweider added.

The latter group of people questioned the need to raise awareness for sexual violence, arguing that its occurrence is already acknowledged as a problem.

But Vollenweider said that the Campaign still made students stop and think.

“If we weren’t out here talking about it, you wouldn’t have just thought about it,” he said.

Abbas Jaffer, a Divinity School student active in HMAR, said that many men become involved in assault prevention because they are close to women who have been affected by sexual violence.

“Even a partial connection can give men the impulse to advocate against sexual violence,” he said. “When they see something beyond theoretical ideas and statistics, something that touches their hearts, they want to do right.”

According to Jaffer, members of final clubs, fraternities, and athletic teams who are involved with both HMAR and the Campaign are taking a proactive approach to combating the stigma that much sexual assault is perpetrated by men in these organizations.

“This is a stereotype where a lot of anxiety about sexual violence comes from,” Jaffer said. “But their strong and sincere presence makes me optimistic.”

Jaffer said that a limited time frame is the most challenging aspect of efforts like the week-long White Ribbon Campaign and the few weeks of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

“We want to start a continuing effort and conversation by thinking of creative ways to engage more students on this issue outside of this one month of events,” he said.

But Jaffer added that the Campaign has already reached a lot of men throughout the week.

“We’re almost out of white ribbons,” he said.

­—Staff writer Alice E.M. Underwood can be reached at aeunderw@fas.harvard.edu.