Posted on March 29, 2007
JMU’s 10th annual Take Back the Night was held on the commons Tuesday evening to educate students about violence and sexual assault against women.
“[Take Back the Night is] just an opportunity for girls to speak and for people to realize that [rape and sexual assault] happens more often than they know, or, honestly, than they’d like to know,” sophomore Claire Billups said. “It’s like one night out of the year [rape] can’t be ignored.”
Hillary Wing Richards, associated director of JMU’s Office of Sexual Assault, delivered the opening remarks. She said that the nature of the evening was to speak out and to help survivors heal further.
Alumnus Dante Ricci, the first of two keynote speakers, was actively involved in C.A.R.E and Take Back the Night as well as president of One in Four during his time at JMU. He currently works with Princeton’s Office of Sexual Assault Prevention.
Ricci said that one out of four women will be raped or sexually assaulted by the time they graduate from college, and people — men especially — don’t believe it.
“[Rape] is something men don’t think about day to day,” Ricci said. “It’s a culture supportive of rape, in some ways and the targeted class, women, have to make compromises, sacrifices, to protect themselves from it.”
Ricci spoke about how gender roles affect men and women in terms of sex. He said men are expected to be sexually aggressive, whereas women are viewed as “sluts” for assuming the same role. And a woman who does not have sex is viewed as frigid.
“I would argue that it’s these gender roles that have everything to do with why we’re here tonight,” Ricci said. “Change is going to really require a new image of masculinity.
Ricci said the most important thing right now is to view men as allies instead of enemies.
“There’s still this lingering attitude that men have no place here, as victims or as allies,” Ricci said. “There is a gender bias — women are usually the victims but rape is not a women’s issue; it’s not a men’s issue. It’s a human issue.”
The second keynote speaker, Teresa Haase from the department of graduate psychology, shared her story of childhood sexual abuse and her realization that being a survivor is part of who she is, but does not completely define her.
The second part of the evening was devoted to an open speak out, where survivors of sexual assault and friends and family of survivors shared their stories. C.A.R.E. counselors were present in case anyone needed to talk privately.
Performances during the event included Dayne Mauney, who sang “This Little Light of Mine,” and dedicated it to all the women in her life who have suffered from sexual assault and to all the other survivors at the gathering. Ladaisha Hughes performed a piece of slam poetry entitled “If I was a Bird,” which told the story of a child being molested, and Whitney Rice performed a dramatic reading of the poem “Blue Blanket,” by Andrea Gibson.
In her reading, Rice recited Gibson’s lines, “She’s not asking what you’re gonna tell your daughter, she’s asking what you’re gonna teach your son.”
