Events against sexual violence are worth attending
Yesterday, University of Idaho students, faculty and other Moscow community members marched across campus in the annual event, Take Back the Night.
Take Back the Night is an event intended to let people take a stand against sexual violence, marking the end of Campus Safety Week. The event opens with a rally given by a guest speaker.
This year the speaker was Emilie McLarnan, assistant director of Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse.
After the rally, attendees participated in a candlelit walk around campus and blew a whistle every two minutes. The whistles signified the statistic of one American assaulted for every two minutes that passes. The event closed with an interactive portion — called Speak-Out — where participants have the opportunity to share personal stories of sexual violence.
Our campus does a fantastic job with their events addressing sexual violence and rape culture. The events are successful and well done — mainly because the people who run the event stay true to one of UI’s biggest values — they’re brave and bold.
Many people are scared of tackling the topic of sexual assault because they think it’s too sensitive of a subject. As a result, even more people remain ignorant of the true extent to which sexual violence affects others around them.
Take Back the Night and other events done at UI — such as those during Sexual Assault Awareness Month — don’t try to hide the fact that sexual assault happens. Instead, they attempt to shed light on how many people are made victims by it. The whole point of Take Back the Night is to try and break the silence that has muffled voices and spread ignorance throughout our world on this issue.
The Silent Witnesses, which are used to enhance Take Back the Night during Campus Safety Week, are a great example of this.
The Silent Witnesses are sillhouettes that each symbolize two to three Idahoans who lost their lives due to domestic or sexual violence.
If students are paying attention to them, they can realize the full scope of the impact sexual assault has on individuals who are not so different from themselves.
Take Back the Night is also considered a quality event because it doesn’t leave the door open for victim blaming.
Don’t get it twisted, and think I’m saying other events aimed against sexual violence just tell victims that it’s their fault for being assaulted or raped. The most common trap many of these events fall into, however, is trying to teach participants how they can stop themselves from being assaulted in the future.
We don’t teach people how to prevent themselves from being murdered, so why do we keep trying to teach people about how they can prevent themselves from being raped?
While well intentioned, in many cases it doesn’t actually stop someone from being violated and afterwards — if the assault is even reported — the most common questions asked usually lead the victim to think it was his or her fault. One example of a possible question is, “How could you be raped if you were wearing your anti-rape nail polish/clothing?”
Take Back the Night doesn’t allow that to happen, because it’s all about breaking the silence and protesting sexual violence as a whole. The point is to highlight the fact that everyone should have the right to feel safe when they walk to work or across campus.
Despite the quality work that is being done throughout the year by groups on our campus, many students and other community members don’t even realize these events go on. Attention is what these events need to thrive. The worst thing to do would be to ignore them.
If you weren’t able to make it to Take Back the Night, don’t feel bad. As long as you’re aware of what’s available on campus, there are plenty future events this year that are worth attending.