Mr. Jason Kohler seems to have reached the conclusion that when it comes to rape, doing nothing is the same as doing nothing wrong.

I find this an especially frightening assumption. It sounds like something any typical ISU student would say.

You see, about this time of year in 1989, at 9 o’clock in the evening, I was doing exactly what I always did. I was walking home from a friend’s house in my small, Iowa hometown and took what I thought was a safe shortcut behind my church. I had made a frightening assumption.

That particular time, I was followed by two older males that I had thought were “nice guys,” and I would even have gone so far as to call them my friends. Not anymore.

That night one of them had been drinking, and my sober “friend” stood by and watched while the other assaulted me in the worst way possible. I heard barely a protest from him. He could have stopped his friend — he could have run for help.

Instead, he gave me the ultimate betrayal.

He did absolutely NOTHING.

To me, this makes him just as responsible (if not more so) as his drunken friend who committed the crime.

Mr. Kohler says, “Rape prevention can be dealt with in other, more serious ways.” I ask, what other ways would you propose?

I will concede that rape education has come a long way since 1989, and no, not every man is a rapist.

Back then, I had no idea that what had been done to me even had a name, let alone that I was supposed to be protected from it. And I couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible when I found out a couple years later that he had raped again, and it was one of my friends. Why should I have felt guilty? It wasn’t my behavior that caused him to rape.

It was his.

Our rape prevention system obviously isn’t working because rape is still happening at a phenomenal rate. You can tell women, “Avoid unlit areas” all you want to, and “Watch your drink and how much you drink at parties,” but rapists can still find us. We are not guaranteed safety just because we’re somewhere assumed to be safe or in the presence of “nice guys” who “don’t do anything.”

Why should I always be the one on the lookout? How many men walking on campus at night hear a female voice and automatically search for a telephone or look for people who might hear if they have to scream for help?

Until now, the male counterpart to rape education could be equivalent to one’s mother waving her finger and saying, “Now if a girl says no, be a good boy and don’t go any further.”

We need to start educating men about the violation that women who have been raped feel. I highly doubt that my rapist or the guy who witnessed it had any idea what kind of intense emotional turmoil their actions (or lack thereof) had caused.

Whether or not you are a rapist does not mean that the problem doesn’t pertain to you. Men need to learn what they can do to help prevent rape, because it’s not just a problem for one gender or the other.

As long as women are used to enhance men’s feelings of power (through rape, sexual harassment, domestic abuse, etc.), the stereotype that men are domineering and aggressive will be perpetuated.

Yes, Mr. Kohler, rape is a serious issue, but I challenge you and every other man on this campus to do more than just discuss it. Don’t just leave it up to women. Get educated. Do SOMETHING.

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Elisa Strachan

Junior

Journalism and mass communication