What does it mean to be a man?

From the most primal moments of human existence, men have protected women and children from other predators. A man that couldn’t protect his family was surely doomed to lose his lineage. Society has changed, thankfully, and now we all take showers daily (most of us). But I would still claim that men ought to defend women and children from other predators. Those predators are now other men.

I grew up on John Wayne and masculinity at its finest. If a man was ever victimizing a woman or child, I knew that John Wayne would bust in and make that man pay. John Wayne portrayed a man with integrity, a man against sexual assault, even when he played an outlaw gunslinger.

Maybe The Duke didn’t make it into all of my generation’s VCRs across the world, but some other man with integrity did. Maybe it was Bruce Lee, Batman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Bond or Clint Eastwood, but every young boy had a hero that he wanted nothing more than to emulate.

What has gone wrong?

If John Wayne were here, he’d go through each residence hall, each apartment complex and each fraternity house finding the men that were assaulting women, and he’d hang ‘em out to dry.

I’m not suggesting that western law be brought back to fruition. I’m suggesting that young men ought to be the men with integrity that they strove to be as children.

One in four women in college is the victim of sexual assault. How can we stand by and allow this? Guys, these are our sisters, our girlfriends and our mothers; and if we don’t make a stand it’ll be our daughters and wives.

Sexual assault needs to make the transition from a women’s issue to a men’s issue. Sexual assault must be perpetrated by a man, and therefore must be stopped by men.

A group of men has stood up. These men are the Men With Integrity, and they understand what it means to be a man. When society told us as boys to “be a man, be manly, be men,” these Men With Integrity listened. To be a real man, you have to stand for the people and things that matter. You have to be honest. These men are standing on the right side of the line.

Not only are they standing, they’re the first to do it. These men are re-changing the world. There are other men at other college campuses and in other cities who will stand with them.

So what? What’s that going to do? Sexual Assault is a crime; you can’t end a crime, right? I would consider slavery a crime, and it took a lot of people taking action to finally end it.

We all know how powerful peer pressure can be, positively as well as negatively. What if the man you consider a role model was standing? Wouldn’t that affect you? And if you stand with him, doesn’t that make you want to keep your integrity by honoring that unsigned promise?

I think it does. Go ahead and stand Men With Integrity, you are the first in the nation to start this movement, and I’m with you.