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Marchers and Speakers Take Back the Night
by ShaTara Drummond & Chris Hewitt
The night for some is a time of terror. It can be a scary time - especially for women, and especially given the high rate of sexual assault on college campuses. A woman has a one in five chance of being sexually assaulted during her four or five years in college, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Justice.
To make the night a less fearful time, Mars Hill College on April 18 hosted Madison County's second Take Back the Night event, which included a rally, march, and chants.
"I am out here to make the campus safer for all women," said Junior Porsha Lackey.
"This is a united effort to take back the night for everyone," said Mars Hill Counseling Director Bill Dycus. The first Take Back the Night rallies were held in the late 1970s and they are now held worldwide.
The event at Mars Hill was hosted by the Women's Studies Program, My Sisters Place, Women on Top and the MHC Counseling Center. About 30 to 35 people gathered in the quad as a live bluegrass band, The Sons of Ralph, sang a few songs and took requests from the crowd. "I'm really glad that this event is taking place. It's a great idea," said Teresa Hoker, a friend of the band.
Joyce Cody, director of "My Sisters Place," the local domestic violence/sexual assault organization in Madison County, set the tone for the evening. "The most important thing that you walk away with tonight," she told the gathering, "is that we all have responsibility to speak out and to be a support system for someone that's sexually assaulted. If you're being sexually assaulted yourself," she said. "…know that there is hope, and know that there is help just around the corner."
Bill Dycus said, "we are holding this event to "empower people, especially women, to say, 'This is not acceptable to us!' The only way that prevention will take place is that those people (who perpetrate these crimes) are not going to do it anymore."
Dycus said that both men and women learn certain lessons in their childhood. "We live in a culture where men are raised to be aggressive…women are taught that other people are always put first, that their feelings are not important, that they have to…be submissive to the other people around them, especially the men in their lives."
"We have to realize that these are lessons we are taught at a very young age. We have to start by changing the way children are taught, the lessons that they learn. This is how the real change is going to come about. This is something for men and women to be equally involved with. We have an equal responsibility…. Men only get the gas pedal. Women get the brake pedal. And that's not fair to any gender."
The crowd fell silent as Mars Hill College Sociology Instructor Laurie Pedersen opened up the floor for people to come to the microphone and tell their stories, read poems, and tell stories of others.
"As one author put it, 'as we begin to share our stories on our own terms, it can be both ugly and beautiful,' said Pedersen, reading the quote. "'By purging ourselves of the pain and fear, there can be a sense of freedom. In telling others what we feel inside, the great burden of secrecy is lifted.'"
During the "speak-out," ribbons were given to everyone, and candles were handed out and lit.
People walked up to the one microphone and told their own stories of rape and abuse or read stories written by friends.
Most rape survivors told of rape by acquaintances or even people they knew well, not by strangers.
One survivor was raped by a fellow student on the Mars Hill campus just last semester during Fall break. A friend began the speak-out by reading her story as published anonymously in the Hilltop. She told how a boy she knew managed to get into the dorm and into her locked room when she was asleep. "Right after, I didn't know what to think. I was shocked. I was hurt because of who it was. Because I thought he and I were friends. I didn't think that he would ever take it to another level where I didn't want it to be." (Link to story)
One survivor told of being raped at a party when she was just 15 years old. After it happened, "He grabbed my clothes, threw them to me, got up, and left me in the room alone. I felt as if everything in me was ripped out, stolen, and thrown back at me as if I was worth nothing. I didn't tell anyone because I was so scared that no one would believe me." (Link to story)
Another told of being raped just out of high school by a boy she had known for four years. "Before you are raped you trust people," she said. After you are raped, "you live in fear. You don't trust anyone." (Link to story)
Following the speak-out there was a candle-lit march up Main Street and around the Women's Hill Loop. The crowd loudly chanted, "Women Unite; Take Back the Night!" and "Take Back the Night! The Time is Near. We Will Not Be Controlled by Fear!" and a number of other chants.
"I hope that I am making a difference," said Junior Kasey Trammell.
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