Fourteen Ways You Can Begin To Stop Rape Today

1. Donate your time as a volunteer to your local rape crisis organization.
2. Donate money to your local, state and national rape crisis organizations.
3. Recognize that no one asks or deserves to be raped ever.
4. Don't blame rape victims for the violence perpetrated against them.
5. Know that silence does not equal consent.
6. Take responsibility for your own sexuality: don't let it be defined by your partner, the media or anyone else.
7. Don't use alcohol and/or drugs to get someone to have sex with you.
8. Men: Become an ally to the women in your life—do not participate in sexist behavior by objectifying or stereotyping women.
9. Women: Take a women's self-defense class.
10. Teach your children, friends, parents and peers about the myths and realities of sexual assault.
11. Find out what your local K-12 school board's policy is on sexual violence prevention and anti-rape education and get involved. If it is not proactive, change it!
12. Lobby your local, state and federal legislators for funding for sexual assault victim support programs.
13. If you have been a victim of a sexual assault either by a stranger, acquaintance or an intimate, know there is help out there. Seek it.
14. Let teachers know you want to have rape prevention programs in your classes.

Men's Pledge to End Rape

Because:

• I believe that rape will not end until men become part of the solution;
• I take pride in myself as a man;
• I care about the women in my life;
• I am angry that people I know have been hurt;
• I know that a woman is raped every three minutes in this country;
• I understand that rape is a crime of violence against women's bodies, women's emotional well-being and women's right to do with their bodies as they choose;
• I recognize that men and women will not be equal until rape ends;
• I know that happiness between men and women is difficult in a world where rape exists;
• I accept my responsibility to assist in making this a safer world.

I pledge to:

• Express my anger about rape;
• Talk with other men about rape;
• Look at how men are raised and how that helps create a culture where rape is possible;
• Interrupt rape jokes;
• Support laws that encourage men to take responsibility for ending rape;
• Listen to female friends' fears and concerns for their safety;
• Pay attention to cries for help;
• Challenge images of violence against women in advertising and pornography;
• Encourage women to be strong and powerful;
• Recognize that cooperation is power;
• Change whatever I am doing that helps create a culture where rape is possible;
• Support women and men working to end rape.

Original version of this statement by the California Anti-Sexist Men's Political Caucus