Women are living in fear. Fear of sexual assault, harassment, stalking and men.

Catalyst Theatre Company, an ISU organization funded in large part by a grant issued by the Office on Violence Against Women, attempted to change that last weekend.

As part of the Students 2 Students peer education program, CTC tasks ISU students with informing fellow classmates — mostly incoming freshmen — of what is and is not acceptable behavior in and out of the classroom.

The cast of seven, comprised of junior and senior men and women from various places, backgrounds and majors, has presented a handful of scenes for two summers now.

These scenes focus on sexual assault, stalking, verbal harassment, domestic violence and the male perspective. They are powerful, evocative and challenging to the “it’s college, we’re supposed to have fun” belief.

But I admit, as I sat in the nearly-packed lecture hall that seats as many as 431, I was shocked to hear the murmurs and whispers among students who saw no need to take the scenes or information presented seriously.

Perhaps one of the most stunningly clear examples of this came as the women of CTC presented their skit on language. As the cast began to cat-call one another and holler sexually-provocative comments in order to illustrate the discomfort and ugliness such slang can cause, one phrase in particular — “nice tits” — stirred a reaction.

From behind my seat, I could overhear students giggle and whisper, “The one in the red really does have nice ones.”

“The one in red” is Lindsay Allen, a senior in performing arts. And, much to my surprise, it isn’t the giggling that bothers her.

“When people giggle it’s mostly just to relieve the tension, so sometimes that’s okay. What really bothers me is the victim-blaming.”

Allen points out that people often look for ways to shift responsibility. “It’s just how they’ve been conditioned,” she said.

And, sadly, she’s right. When directors of CTC asked audience members how things could be handled differently in a few of the scenes, many answers reflected an attitude of blaming the victim.

“She shouldn’t have been drinking so much.”

“She should have left.”

Granted, these excuses are certainly more diluted than the almost stereotypical, “Did you see what she was wearing? She was asking for it,” but in the end, they are of the same mind-set and that needs to change.

Ray Rodriguez, coordinator for this year’s CTC, called the excuses “bullshit.”

Frankly, I’m inclined to agree with him.

Drinking to excess, while certainly not a wise move, does not cause sexual violence. Nor does wearing v-neck tops, having a physically-attractive body, walking alone or any other number of excuses. The person responsible is the perpetrator, never the victim.

As the men of the crowd and of CTC noted, that perpetrator is most often male. According to FBI statistics and Jackson Katz, a leading male advocate against sexism and sexual violence, 98-99 percent of sexual assaults are committed by males. But just as large of a problem is the silence of a male bystander.

In the skit from the men of CTC, Cailan Sockness, senior in psychology, likened the hesitation many men may feel when they could be stepping up against sexual assault to the hesitation of a student in class.

After all, no one wants to ruin the good time, right? No one wants to be the odd one out.

To the men who may have felt such hesitation, I have some good news. You’re not the odd one out. Rodriguez points out that according to his research from 2002 to 2003, 93 percent of men don’t want sexual violence on their campus and 92 percent of men would not approve of a friend committing sexual assault or getting a girl drunk just to have sex with her. That works out to 11 good guys against one potentially bad apple.

One to 12? Those are pretty nice odds for the good guys, I’d say.

When statistics indicate that women of Story County alone reported 149 incidents of sexual assault to the Sexual Assault Response Team from 2006 to 2008 — 27 percent of whom were ISU students in 2008 — we need the good guys.

All this talk of men being said, we can’t and should not blame an entire gender, treating every man with suspicion. Likewise, we cannot ignore the male victims of sexual assault, who made up 3 percent of total sexual assaults in Story County from 2006 to 2009, according to Story County Sexual Assault Response Team statistics.

But some still resist. Statistics can’t possibly be that high, they say. Rape doesn’t happen that often, so some women must be fabricating accusations to get their way.

Well, according to ISU Director of Public Safety Jerry Stewart, only once has a local false accusation occurred within the past 10 years.

“At ISU, crime statistics indicate false reports of sexual assault are certainly no more likely than other crimes. In fact, they’re less so,” he said.

So much for the “crying rape” theory.

Perhaps a large problem lies with confusion over what constitutes rape. It’s a problem one cast member of CTC who wished to remain anonymous has experienced personally.

The perpetrator was the cast member’s boyfriend at the time, a stark contrast to the claim that only sick weirdos and strangers commit sexual assault.

“When he asked me if I wanted to have sex, I said no. But he did it anyway,” she said.

The cast member reports there was no great struggle, no forceful attack.

But no is still no and non-consensual sex constitutes sexual assault, even if the victim may not know it.

“At the time, I didn’t know what had happened was wrong, but I always felt like there was something off. And people asked me why I didn’t fight him off, or they’d blame me for giving in,” she said. “What was I supposed to do?”

Sexual assault is a trap that ensnares both victim and bystander in a vice-like grip of fear, paranoia and helplessness. Many times, we wonder that exact same question: What are we supposed to do?

Spread the word. Raise awareness. Donate. Perhaps, most simply, set an example.

Just do something.

– Sophie Prell is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Alta, Iowa.