Hello Readers! My name is Laura Hoffman and I am a SAFER intern for the summer. I have also been a Policy and Research Volunteer since September.
Educating men and women on and off college campuses about gender violence is an essential part of anti-violence activism. For my first post, I would like to highlight a prevention program for fraternity men at West Chester University in Pennsylvania that is particularly effective.
The program is called the Fraternity Anti-Violence Education Project and it consists of a year-long peer-led seminar coordinated by Deborah Mahlstedt, a professor of Psychology. A 1998 documentary entitled Men’s Work: Fraternity Men Stopping Violence against Women chronicles the experiences of college men in this seminar, which is still held today. Designed specifically for fraternity members because of their typically misogynistic and violent culture, this seminar aims to change the way men view sexual assault. Through role-playing activities, open discussion, and rape survivors’ accounts of their traumatic experiences, these men gradually learn that changing their attitudes about women and violence can help prevent sexual assaults on their campus.
At the beginning of the semester, the men are all reluctant to admit that they have been complicit in creating a culture of sexual violence because they themselves have never committed a violent act. The men interviewed express stereotypical victim-blaming beliefs and discuss how their masculinity is tied to the amount of women they have seduced. Most of these men have been socialized to view women as conquests, which is demeaning and objectifying. At first, the men speak with conviction about their stances on this issue. When they are asked directly if they would ever commit sexual violence, they uniformly say no.
Gradually, the peer-educators leading the seminar nudge the students to think about the implications of what they are saying. Through many weeks of non-combative discussion, they make the students realize that their attitudes make women uncomfortable and vulnerable. The students learn that their behaviors and degrading comments about women facilitate sexual violence, even if they are not the ones committing the acts. Rightly, the men are collectively horrified.
By forcing the students to look inward, the educators show the students that sexual violence is not a problem outside of themselves but something that they can all help prevent. Through talking with sexual assault survivors and role-playing, the students are able to look from the perspective of the victim, which is vital to their understanding of the consequences of sexual violence.
In a few short months, the fraternity men in the Fraternity Anti-Violence Education project radically shift their attitudes about sexual violence. Many find that their close friends or family members who have been sexually assaulted are now able to open up to them about their experiences. Many go on to be peer-educators themselves. Many find themselves speaking out to fraternity brothers who are not in the program about the implications and danger of their violent and misogynistic actions.
Watching this documentary in college and re-visiting it now, I am struck by the way the men’s deeply entrenched attitudes, ones tied tightly to their self-esteem, are altered through the course of this seminar. I found hope in this not just for ending sexual violence, but for ending all forms of discrimination. Shifting people’s harmful attitudes and ending their perpetuation is a vital part of installing lasting change. In light of recent happenings with fraternities at Yale and other schools, it would behoove colleges and universities to look upon West Chester University’s program as an example of how effective education can be.
