Sexual assault statistics in the United States are shocking, outrageous and, like most statistics, easy to disconnect from personal experience. A 1998 study by National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly 17 percent of women and about 3 percent of men in this country will experience an attempted or completed rape. But it is hearing the stories from those who have actually experienced sexual violence that makes the outrage personal, and (at least momentarily) impossible to ignore. This is the goal of Take Back the Night, an annual event at Brown, held this year on May 3, to raise awareness of sexual assault. The event will include readings from several survivors of sexual violence.
Last semester, I participated in a Take Back the Night march in downtown Providence with other members of the Brown Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance and young feminists from other schools. During this march, one of the downtown leaders asked that the men who had chosen to attend (there were very few) not march with us. Ignoring the glaringly ironic fact that this march of women was preceded by a flashing cavalry of male policemen on motorcycles, protecting us as we asserted our power in the uncertain night, the leader of the march suggested that rape was exclusively the realm of women. But while 90 percent of rape victims are women, the remaining 10 percent - men - are usually ignored or forgotten.
I have never been a victim of sexual assault. I was simply marching as someone who is opposed to sexual violence and committed to ending it. I assumed that these men were in the same position as I was. Yet because I was a woman, and therefore statistically likelier to be a victim, the leader of the march seemed to assume that I had more of a right to march than the men did. It is true that the threat of rape makes me and many other women feel vulnerable, and the idea of "taking back the night" is a powerful metaphor for reclaiming this frightening space - the darkness - where we feel unsafe. But men are threatened and feel threatened too, though our norms make it harder for them to admit. And it is often even harder for men to admit when they've been sexually assaulted.
The official Take Back the Night Web site states that such findings have "inspired both women and men to confront a myriad of social ills" caused by sexual violence, but sexual assault continues to be perceived as something done exclusively to women, by men. For example, under the section labeled "Victims of Sexual Assault" on the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network Web site, "Women" is the first heading. In so many realms, women are considered last, but rape is perceived as solely our domain - our problem.
Associating women with rape comes easily because we all hold deeply rooted perceptions of women as victims. And these assumptions are, to a certain degree, based on convincing evidence. It is true that women are often physically weaker and more likely to be victimized, and that men are more often the perpetrators of violence. But women should not accept their victimization and assert the exclusive right to "reclaim the night," a space that threatens everyone, men and women. Such beliefs are counterproductive in challenging sexual violence in this country. In order to confront the statistics, perhaps we must first challenge constructs in our society that associate women with victimization. Rape is more of a statistical probability for women, but it is not solely our problem. We can't solve it if we exclude others.
I hope Take Back the Night will spread the message that sexual assault is more personal than we think, more common than we think and more awful than we imagine. Rape crosses class lines, race lines and gender lines. Statistics say that there is a greater chance that women will be raped, and that men will be the perpetrators of this violence. But Take Back the Night is not about numbers; it is about personalizing sexual violence and taking a stand towards ending it. We need to start changing the statistics, and stop accepting and internalizing them. The first step is to create an anti-violence movement that includes everyone and breaks down our gendered notions of power and empowerment.
Amy Littlefield '09 says you can march if you want to.
