Tony Porter, activist, lecturer and co-founder of A Call to Men: The National Association of Men and Women Committed to Ending Violence Against Women, is bringing his mission to the students of Ohio University.
Porter is known for his program that educates men on the role that they can play in ending gender-based violence.
His discussion Wednesday in Baker University Center Theater will be highly interactive, said Susanne Dietzel, director of the Women’s Center.
“He is very astute to reading his audiences and seeing where they are at and giving them specific tools that they can use,” she said. “We’re all excited to be bringing him to the campus and will be richer for it by the time he leaves.”
The talk is part of the campus conversation about healthy relationships, and since Porter looks at healthy masculinity, it was an important part of the conversation to add, said Winsome Chunnu-Brayda, associate director of the Multicultural Center.
“His work focuses on men and their role in ending violence against women, but the takeaway for women is to understand the male psyche and add to the conversation as well,” Chunnu-Brayda said. “It’s to empower both men and women surrounding the topic of violence against women.”
According to the World Health Organization, 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime, and according to the US Bureau of Justice, nearly three in four victims (73 percent) of family violence are female.
Though the majority of violence is perpetrated by men, most men are not violent, said Bill Arnold, graduate assistant for bystander intervention and prevention education for the Women’s Center.
“It is important for men who do not perpetrate violence to step up and model a healthier kind of masculinity, one which has no tolerance for harm to others,” he said.
The Women’s Center, the Multicultural Center, the Black Student Cultural Programming Board, the Survivor Advocacy Program and the LGBT Center are hosting the event. It cost $5,000 to bring Porter to OU.
Porter’s work tackles a topic that most people can relate to, Arnold said.
“I’d hazard a guess that most everybody in our community either knows somebody that’s experienced, or have themselves experienced, sexual violence and/or intimate partner violence,” he said. “To me, that means most everybody in our community has a role to play in increasing safety and promoting health.”
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