Letter: Men should oppose rape with action, not just words

While undoubtedly written with good intentions, Nick Christie's column, "The strength of a victim," completely misses the mark regarding a man's role in sexual assault prevention. By self-righteously--and irrationally--taking responsibility for the assault of women close to him, Christie inadvertently puts himself in the role of a hero and women in the position of "damsels in distress." I think I speak for other women when I say that I don't want a "knight in shining armor" to rescue me from an attacker; I simply don't want to be attacked. It seems as though Christie recognizes that reducing sexual assaults on campus is the responsibility of both women and men, but his anger and guilt do nothing to solve this problem. Instead of writing sanctimonious columns about what a virtuous man he is, I urge Christie, and others who share his sentiments, to actually do something to prevent sexual assault, like get involved with Sexual Assault Prevention Week, volunteer at Safe Haven, or become a peer educator through the Healthy Devil and lead programming around campus. Christie does not need to feel "helpless" to prevent sexual assault, but it is far easier to feel guilty for not stopping an attack-in-progress than it is to take action to prevent assault from happening in the first place. Women do not need men to decry rape and announce how much they want to protect us. Instead, we need proactive partners to get involved and work toward eliminating sexual assaults at Duke.