Boys, this could be you
Molly Redden
Vox Populi reports that GUSA voted to approve the $900 necessary to start the long-awaited RAD program, or Rape Aggression Defense classes. The money will be enough to buy four $225 training suits—for a class of women. But now that GUSA and DPS have invested smartly, they might want to start thinking about our men.
American University did, (its Resisting Aggression with Defense for men teaches physical defense in aggressive situations as well as tactics for avoiding physical confrontations), but not without supremely offending its paper of record The Eagle‘s editorial board, which instead of embracing the idea balked at the prospect of telling men not to be men:
“Men do certainly seem to be more aggressive than women, but it is doubtful that four classes, totaling 12 hours, would be able to change years of learned behavior or magically lower elevated levels of testosterone … Instead, Public Safety should offer a class in addition to the women’s only RAD class that includes both men and women. A class that caters to both genders could be doubly beneficial in that it would help men and women get on the same page about sexual assault.”
Public Safety’s Sgt. Dale Booth soon set them staight in an op-ed over their misconception of what the class actually teaches. Nonetheless, the editorial board’s initial response to what they saw as a proactive anger-management class for men still interests, because they broadly misplace male responsibility as it resides in the murky world of fights and assault.
After all, helping men “get on the same page about sexual assault” as women is pretty much platitudinal-speak for reminding men that it’s wrong to assault women. It divests men of any responsibility beyond acquiring an elementary grasp of what tends to make women uncomfortable or an understanding that women don’t like being attacked. Their insistence that men can’t unlearn the biology that informs male action in aggressive situations relieves them of even more responsibility.
It’s pretty hard to argue with the editorial board when they frame their argument in terms of “not enough time,” but at the same time, its highly telling that their alternate solution addresses a completely different, softball problem.
I’d like to see this class at Georgetown, if not just for its practical value, for its intrinsic value. Right now, the face of Georgetown’s recent sexual offenses are the women who need RAD training. Meanwhile, the men involved are a largely faceless party, described, say, in PSAs as “about 5′ 10″.” So faceless in fact, that they can adopt an air of comedy, like one Georgetown Cuddler. This program would broadcast the kind of only-you-can-prevent-forest-fires message to men that this campus sorely needs.
Photo taken from Flickr user oudodou under a Creative Commons license.
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