By Geoff Preston

gpreston@statenews.com

Walking home alone at night after a few drinks is never a good idea, man or woman. People who want to hurt you usually don’t care if you are a man or a woman — drunk is drunk.

That being said, through a series of events I was walking home alone on Albert Avenue earlier this semester after a night at the bar. While walking I saw a girl ahead of me, also walking home alone. She was about a block ahead of me in a dimly lit part of town.

Of course, I didn’t think much of it. It’s a big campus and I see a lot of people walking to and from a lot of places. But what happened next did surprise me.

The girl looked behind her, saw me and ran as fast as she could away from me.

I didn’t get it. I’m a nice guy. I wouldn’t hurt a fly. I was raised by strong women and have never felt the urge to harm anyone, man or woman.

Shockingly, that girl didn’t exactly have time to ask for a contextual back story. She saw a drunk guy, who was a little on the big side, walking towards her and didn’t want to take the chance that I might do something to cause her harm.

She had every right to run away. She probably should have run away. And if you are a man reading this and you don’t think sexual assault is an issue for men to be as passionate about as women, that is the reason you are wrong.

In the world we live in men are assumed guilty until proven innocent, and with good reason. It’s through a series of cultural mistakes that go back longer than any of us have been alive, and it’s a fact that we have to deal with.

How about we change that culture? Sounds good, right?

If you don’t want to be classified as someone who would commit one of the more unspeakable crimes a human can commit, then start the change yourself. Right now the movement against sexual violence has a lot of momentum, but establishing a solid base of male support would give the movement even more strength.

Men need to be as upfront as women in leading a culture shift. I understand it isn’t just women who are survivors of sexual assault, but I’m here to talk about the statistical majority. The culture will not change until the gender who has caused most of the problems orchestrate the change.

Because until we do that, it’ll be assumed that I am a rapist or dangerous because girls aren’t going to find the time to stop and ask for a contextual back story from me when walking home in the middle of the night anytime soon.

And frankly, the act of people running away from me got incredibly old, incredibly fast.

Geoff Preston is a reporter at The State News. Reach him at gpreston@statenews.com.