Efe M. Oghoghome
WOMNST 0100
Prof. Hannabach
24 Nov 2011
‘Take Back the Night’: A Rally against Sexual Violence
The Pitt News 10-19-11
‘Take Back the Night’: A Rally against Sexual Violence
“A woman walks alone down a dark, deserted street. With every shadow she sees, and every sound she hears, her pounding heart flutters and skips a beat. She hurries her pace as she sees her destination become closer. She is almost there. She reaches the front door, goes inside, collects herself, and moves on forgetting, at least for tonight, the gripping fear that momentarily enveloped her life.” (History)
On Tuesday, October 18th, 2011, the University of Pittsburgh’s Campus Women’s Organization (CWO) hosted Take Back the Night (TBTN), an event geared towards raising awareness and speaking out about the various form of sexual and relationship violence against women. I am the Community Outreach Chair for CWO so I had the pleasure of taking part in the planning of the event as well as participating. About fifty people were in attendance for the TBTN including CWO board members, CWO general body members, representatives from on-campus student organizations like Black Action Society and Rainbow Alliance as well as other people from the University of Pittsburgh community (Chilson). It was very nice to see so many new and old faces taking part in such an important event.
This was the seventh annual TBTN event held by University of Pittsburgh’s CWO. The first Take Back the Night documented event in the United States took place in Philadelphia, PA in October 1975. Citizens of Philadelphia rallied together after the murder of young microbiologist, Susan Alexander Speeth, who was stabbed by a stranger a block from her home while walking alone. After that initial event, TBTN has been held throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and India. (History) Initially, the event focused on women asserting the right to feel safe in public spaces at night. This was done to combat the common assertion than women don’t belong outside alone at night for fear of being harmed. Women were literally ‘taking back’ the night from the people who made them feel unsafe or committed violent acts against the. Later on TBTN evolved to taking on the charge of protesting dating and relationship violence as well as asserting a woman’s right to be safe in the public realm.
The goal TBTN was to raise awareness about sexual and domestic violence and how it negatively affects everyone—not just women. This goal was effectively communicated to both TBTN organizers and participants. Communicating the goal to participants was done via a talk given by CWO office administrator, Tracey Hickey, at the rally in the Kurtzman room of the William Pitt Union (WPU) preceding the TBTN march. Tracey spoke about the history of TBTN at Pitt and worldwide, general facts and statistics on dating and sexual violence and her own personal reasons for being involved. One statistic was “One in four women and one in seven men are victims of sexual violence…[and]…three percent of women on college campuses report surviving rape or attempted rape” After saying that, Tracey said “if that though freaks you out or makes you pissed off, you should be here”. Tracey’s talk got the crowd riled up and ready for the upcoming march. The bystander training also added to the goal by giving participants useful and effective was to combat sexual violence in their day-to-day lives. An example of this is the following advice given to the TBTN crowd by the Pittsburgh Acton Against Rape (PAAR) representative: ”If someone sees a friend in what appears to be a dangerous situation…[try]…distracting the assailant, appealing to their better nature or teaming up with other people to talk the person out of it” (Chilson).
It is useful to use the questions posed in David Spade’s “Methodologies of Trans Resistance” to analyze the effectiveness of Campus Women Organization’s Take Back the Night event. The questions and analysis are as follows:
- What effect would this campaign or action have on the most vulnerable individuals in the community or constituency? (Spade 256)
This event did not have a marked effect on the most vunerable individuals in the community in that it did not actually stop violence from occurring or console victims of such abuse. It did however raise awareness for the cause and empower people to take action in the form of protest. The bystander training also helped prevent sexual violence by informing and empowering knowledgeable bystanders to take action instead of being complacent.
- Does anyone suffer exclusion if we pursue this goal of strategy? (Spade 256)
The goal of TBTN rally was pretty inclusive with respect to things like gender, race and sexual orientation. With that said, differently abled people might have had difficulty taking part in the march segment of the event. In addition, people who had to work late to support themselves or others would not be able to attend the event.
- How does it fit into the overall vision of what we want the world to look like or what we want the specific system that this campaign engages with to look like? (Spade 256)
This event fits the overall vision of an ideal world because it represents a world where sexual and relationship-related violence is no longer a problem. It also represents solidarity between different people with different identities coming together to work towards a common, positive goal.
TBTN was made up of different parts that each contributed to the goal of the event. A week prior to the event, CWO held a TBTN poster making meeting. CWO members as well as members of other Pitt student organizations were in attendance. At 7:30 pm on October 18, 2011 there was a TBTN Rally. The rally was started off with a speech given by a CWO board member detailing the history of the event at Pitt and worldwide as well as reasons why such an event is so important and necessary. Following the rally was the TBTN march at 8:00pm. The march route went from the WPU though South Oakland and back again. Throughout the march, the chants had people peering through their apartment windows quizzically and the posters had people honking their horns in solidarity. After the march at 8:30pm was bystander training held by PAAR. There was a PowerPoint presentation detailing the statistics of sexual and relationship violence on college campuses and discussing causes and effects of such occurrences. The best part of the presentation was the part were the PAAR facilitator had the groups split up into groups act out skits of how to intervene given a specific realistic situation of attempted sexual and/or relationship violence.
The form of TBTN was instrumental towards achieving the event’s goal of raising awareness. The poster making meeting helped bring together people who were going to the march and facilitated cooperation and collaboration in making the posters that would be used during the march. The rally informed people who were going to march the people on the history, goals and execution of the march. We also went over chants for the upcoming march. During the march people held posters saying things like ‘Stop rape’, ‘Consent is sexy’ and ‘My short skirt is not an invitation’. Chants like ‘Hey, mister! Keep your hands off my sister’ and ‘Whose streets’ were bellowed through the streets of Oakland. There chants got across the ideas eliminating the violent act of rape, the importance of informed and enthusiastic consent before engaging in sexual contact and the independence of women walking the streets at night. One chant in particular, ‘Queer, straight, Black, white—These streets are ours, take back the night’, stuck out to me. It exemplified the inclusiveness of the myriad identities of people affected by sexual and relationship violence (Crensaw) as well as expressed the solidarity between members of the group that were marching with various ways of self-identifying. Finally, bystander training was very useful. The timing let folks participate in TBTN who may have missed the rally and/or march due to a night class or other scheduling conflict. More importantly it gave vital information on how TBTN participants to take action against violence in everyday life.
Take Back the Night is a culturally and politically relevant event. Unfortunately rape culture is a part of the world we live in. More specifically, being on a large college campus in urban area lends itself to Site of many sexual violence incidents (dating violence, sexual assault, rape). Also, over the years TBTN has evolved along with the feminist movement. At first TBTN was a ‘woman-only’ space, now it is inclusive of male and transgender allies (Chilson). In addition, at Pitt CWO’s TBTN, there were women of color and members of the LGBT community present at the event which acknowledges the intersectionality of multiple identities as they relate to sexual and relationship violence towards women (Crenshaw).
Works Cited
Chilson, Joe. “Students raise awareness on sexual violence.” The Pitt News [Pittsburgh] 19 10 2011, Tues. Ed. 1,3. Print.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” An Introduction to Women’s Studies: Gender in a Transnational World. Ed. Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan. 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. 200-206.
“History.” Take Back the Night. Take Back the Night Foundation and International Headquarters, n. d. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. http://www.takebackthenight.org/history.html.
Spade, Dean. “Methodologies of Trans Resistance.” A Companion to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies. Eds. George E. Haggerty and Molly McGarry. Malden: Blackwell, 2007. 237-261.
Filed under: Activist Connections
