This is a response to a blog post by jloigman, posted earlier today. Their post is here.
While I appreciate jloigman's critique of Take Back the Night, I'm writing a defense. There are some very valid points in "Rape Is Not Progressive." Yes, it is an idealist march. Maybe it doesn't directly end rape. But that's not necessarily what TBTN is meant to do.
I am, in fact, a member of an anti-rape organization. Not only do I participate in Take Back the Night, I also coordinated my campus's Clothesline Project this year. I participate in these groups because rape infuriates me, but what breaks my heart is the silence that too many victims endure.
The point of TBTN, Clothesline, and Sexual Assault Awareness month is not to parade around, proud in pretentious feminism, blowing whistles, and screaming. It's about raising awareness and showing victims that they are NOT alone and they do NOT have to remain silent. In no other crime are victims told to be ashamed, are they told that "you must have wanted it," are they told to deal with it. Rape victims have been isolated and silenced. Events such as TBTN are an effort to end that silence.
And I believe that groups like this NEED to exist. Admittedly, I am biased. But I am biased for reasons: an incredible number of people very dear to me are victims of sexual assault or relationship violence. For them I shout, for them I write stories on t-shirts and hang them in our student union. Because some of these women believed they had no resources, no one to turn to when they were assaulted.
Take a closer look at the groups who organize TBTN or the Clothesline Project—I'm willing to bet you that that's not all they do. For instance, my group is in charge of presenting sexual assault resources and education to all incoming freshmen, and work jointly with a sexual assault hotline. Most Take Back the Night marches are organized by domestic violence shelters and human rights advocates. These people are not marching for the sake of demonstration, or to feel good about themselves—they're trying to tell the world what they care about. Do you think these people do not make a difference to those they serve?
A side note: believe it or not, these rallies run on manpower and not much else. I should know, I am treasurer for my group and we spent less than $25 on organizing both Clothesline and Take Back the Night. We get hardly any funding as it is, we do not spend it recklessly.
Sometimes you have to yell about something to get people to think about it. An overwhelming amount of people bask in the comfort of the idea that rape doesn't affect them—but the numbers show that somewhere between 1 in 3 and 1 in 6 women will be raped in their lives, as will roughly 1 in 7 men. That number is astronomically high. If each of these people believes they are alone, if each of these people hears the word rape and thinks "Kobe Bryant" or "Duke Lacrosse team", how will we ever fix the problem? I believe that we have to admit something is happening before it can be solved. So maybe yelling "People unite, take back the night, men out there, show you care" didn't stop a rape. But it did show the girl who thought she was alone that there are people out there who can help her heal, and that she has the choice to empower herself.
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