What can you do to help?

Last week I, along with the rest of the class, attended to Men Against Rape speech by Jeff Bucholtz. Jeff Bucholtz is a violence prevention specialist and instructor at Southwestern College and San Diego State University. Jeff talked about sexual violence and rape culture. He used storytelling, examples, compare/contrast, cause/effect, and explications as his rhetorical strategies. I had Jeff for my communication teacher last semester and I always thought of him as a great public speaker. He is intelligent, funny, and very inspired by what he does, which is why he always fills up the room when he does these speeches.

Jeff shocked us with facts like 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime while 1 in 7 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime and only 5%-10% of sexual survivors will report the crime. 76% of all sexual assaults will be committed by someone the person knows. It is difficult to believe that 1 in 10 men will commit a sexual assault sometime in their life. Rape culture encourages male sexual aggression and violence against women. The media makes violence seem sexy.

In his presentation, Jeff uses the power point, pictures of real sexual violence survivors and their stories, writing board, and a small news script. In this script he pretend to be the news reporter with breaking news where he gives advise to women what to do to prevent sexual violence. It is a funny monologue Jeff performs where he advises women not to leave their homes at anytime, not to smell good, not to wear attractive clothing, and much more silly advice. At the end he explains that it’s not women’s fault the sexual violence occurs. Jeff advises the men to start standing up as well and to say something when they hear one of their friends call another women a disrespectful name. A simple comment like “Hey man, that’s not cool” can make a big difference in someone’s life.

At the end of his speech Jeff includes advise how to help survivors of sexual violence. We can start by saying three sentences: I’m so sorry this happened, it’s not your fault, what can I do to help? There is more information on www.weendviolence.com. Please be supportive and like their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/WeEndViolence.