12/6

Today we listened to four presentations

First was Lateah went first, she is planning on doing something physical, maybe even something like a flash mob..something that people can see. She designed a dance/flash mob of ~20+ people with a recording playing of the statistics of rape and while that is being said, the people would act out what the statistic was saying. Everyone would be wearing all black. At the end, everyone would line up domino style, it would snake around the mall/cub area, the first person would represent a rape victim and everyone would trust fall backwards to show how rape effects someone for the rest of their life. Somebody would be wearing a help shirt and would push the people back up to demonstrate that help is available. Then everyone would strip down to their undies with #stillnotanexcuse written on them. With this being video taped it could show the viral media culture happening and be able to be played over again for social media.

Next was Jackson, he made a handout titled "feminism can end rape culture" by Men for Social Change, under the women resource center. It is about the toxic masculinity and ending patriarchy. The handout includes an outline with important points. Their short term goal is a presentation for fraternities to talk to the men who are statistically more inclined to be the rapists, and what leads to those kinds of actions. It is important to tell men that it's not important to be dominant and powerful over women. The idea of patriarchy leads to rape culture "power, sports, get the woman, etc." You don't have to be what society tells you to be, you can be a man while also enjoying things that aren't "manly". What non-masculine things do you do? By making a list of all these things that men do that are non-masculine more men will see that they don't have to be a true man. By showing them it's okay to be like this, hopefully rape culture will slow down with men feeling like they need to be so masculine going away.

Then Mikah and Jace went, they made a pamphlet to hand out to college men specifically. It has a bunch of resources listed, what to do if you are the victim or know a victim, statistics, and a website related to it. It is something that could be handed out at Women's Resource Center. Their website listed is known as The Voice Project which is loaded with statistics, what rape is, Title IX information, videos, more resources. The video was very empowering and would help a lot of audience. There is also a take action page that gives awareness and tells victims the steps they can take and what they should do. It also has WSU safety tips and things that the campus can do if you feel uncomfortable or find yourself in a bad situation like this.

Last was John, he created a website that basically does what Jackson does but in a website form. On the website there would be things like the box exercise, and talking about the importance of empowering women instead of following typical masculinity roles. Would try and get the word of the website out through classes. Maybe even using something like clickbait could be an idea to get resource out to wide audience.

12/1

Today we went over our final projects and our ideas for them.

Shalynn started, her and Jamie are going to make an infographic for parents that highlights behavior in kids that contribute to rape culture. Some examples are "no means no" "you don't have to hug your uncle if you don't want to". Going to use research from child behavior and things like that. Use some ideas that are "do this" and "don't do that". Mostly just resources for parents to help talk to their kids so from a young age they can get an idea of how to bring these ideas up. Choosing different responses, "give an acknowledgment instead of a hug" - allows child to choose the kind of contact they want to have with people.

Jace and Mikah are going to create a pamphlet with information about what rape is, the "no means no" stuff. They are also going to make a website potentially with a video. After the pamphlet is read they will be able to go to the website in order to get more information. The audience it will target is things like "GreenDot" at WSU. Mostly targeting college students. Back page will have resources for people going through it and more websites about learning more about rape.

**Important to make sure you know who your audience is and gear it specifically towards that audience.

David is doing something to overcome sexual violence, overuse of drugs and violence, a new position/program at the house (Frat), thinking of a way to help the Greek system get past everything that is going on with alcohol related offenses and alleged rapes that were occurring through frats. His idea is to propose a measure that would address the concerns his fraternity would take in order to combat the issues. By setting an example, they hope other houses will follow this example. A program for "self-education". Should add what to do if you see something suspicious happening.

Holly, Haley, and I are doing something with integrating a resource that would go through the public school system. Currently it's at the 5th grade, 8th grade, and 11th grade sex education course with running themes "no means no", "inappropriate touching", and other age appropriate things. We plan on mostly focusing on the high school though because we could better prepare them for college because the college statistics are the worst of all. Maybe using Missoula, videos, statistics, cases, etc. to create a curriculum that is some sort of "reality check" in order to better teach students that it is real and what to do. Unfortunately parents have the opportunity to pull children out of these classes, the big question is how to frame it to get in to a curriculum with how much of a touchy subject this is politically. More than just sex ed - also including the violence/public health issues of it as well.

Anna and Michael are thinking about doing a one day seminar for high school or middle school students, something media based so they can see what message they are trying to say. They want to convince audience to feel something about it - take a situation "what if this was your mother, sister, girlfriend - how would you feel". Have them answer in questions to see what they think versus the actual statistic. Use live polling or hashtag to keep audience a little more involved. Texting a specific number to have questions answered while keeping anonymity. What happens after that day? Is it a one and done day thing? Or is there a way to follow up or continue the dialogue that wouldn't cut it off at the end of the day?

****It is important to really bring in rhetoric and use multiple perspectives. Don't just have conclusions but also consequences and implications.