Group challenges male social norms

By using urinal screens in dorm bathrooms, the student group Raising Awareness of Interactions in Sexual Encounters wants to educate men that they have the power to stop sexual assault. A new group wants to take that message out of the men's room and put it in the spotlight.\nThe Men's Coalition seeks to challenge the social norms of masculinity. The group will "influence the culture of masculinity" and hold men accountable for the change, the group's founder Nigel Pizzinisaid in a press release. \nAll men are invited to the IMU Maple Room at 5 p.m. tonight to attend a call-out meeting for the group. \nPizzini plans to hold seminars, panel discussions and large campaigns about positive messages of respectful masculinity. He said he wants to challenge men to consider what they have been taught about masculinity.\n"(We need) to change the ideas that we as men have about what's OK, and how we might privilege or prioritize our own desires or wants, and in the way which we think about power," said Pizzini, who is a men's program consultant for the Office of Women's Affairs.\nThe formation of this group represents men becoming more vocal about addressing sexual assault as a men's issue, said Assistant Dean of Women's Affairs Carol McCord. \n"Men are saying, 'I don't like the fact that women think that because I'm a guy, I'm a part of a culture that treats them like this,'" she said. \nA group with similar ideas, called Men Against Rape, formed in the 1980s. Dean of Students Richard McKaig was a part of that effort and said the group was not particularly successful. \n"We had difficulty attracting men to the task," he said. "Because we had relatively small numbers, it became overwhelming to get men together to do programming."\nNow McKaig is more optimistic.\n"There seems to be a growing resurgence of acknowledgement that men need to be actively involved and actively addressing (these issues)," he said.\nLast year, senior Chris Hardy attended a seminar about sexual assault and masculinity. \n"It gave me a lot of insight (on) how males act toward one another and towards females," he said. \nHardy said he would like to continue the discussion about masculinity with fraternities on campus. \n"It's not about blaming or threats. It's more of discussing why a lot of college males act the way they do, and how they can change the atmosphere," he said.\nCollege is a great opportunity to challenge social norms and that some men feel the need to use sex as a status symbol, Hardy said. \nSome men might criticize this movement and attack the masculinity of participants instead of questioning their own thoughts and behavior, McCord said. \n"Men will have to reach out (to) other men to bring them into this," she said. "It's going to take men with a great deal of self-confidence."\nMcCord said women she has talked to are pleased and supportive of what the Men's Coalition is trying to achieve. \n"We men collectively have to take responsibility for this. It's not to say all men are violent or all men are rapists; it is to say all men must take responsibility for change," Pizzini said.