Take Back the Night confronts its identity

Questions surround men's role in the event. Questions surround men's role in the event.The annual event will take place this evening at 7 p.m. on College Green. Every year since 1994 hundreds of members of the University community have gathered around the peace sign on College Green to march around campus and join together to protest violence against women. But despite its seemingly innocuous goals of making the University more aware of domestic and sexual violence and giving female survivors of sexual violence a chance to share their experiences, Take Back the Night has had more than its share of controversy. As organizers prepare for this year's event -- which will take place tonight at 7 p.m. on College Green --much of the debate surrounding Take Back the Night has centered on whether men, the group some feel would benefit the most from actively participating, should be allowed to do so. A rocky beginning In 1989, several female students and faculty members tried to organize the first Take Back the Night on Penn's campus -- modeled after a similar national event created in San Francisco in the 1970s -- but the rally was interrupted by hecklers. With the creation of Penn's chapter of the National Organization for Women in 1993, however, many felt it was time to try again. One year later, about 200 people participated in the first Take Back the Night on College Green. It was the beginning of a tradition. Held each April, Penn's Take Back the Night has become an annual event that draws hundreds of students and faculty. Similar rallies are held on college campuses across the United States and Europe. But while the popularity of the Penn event has continued to grow, the format of the program has been forced to change in recent years due to the shifting demands of its participants. In 1995, the event's Survivor's Speakout -- the open-microphone portion of the rally which at the time allowed anyone, victim or perpetrator, to speak about sexual violence -- sparked controversy when a male Penn student stepped up to publicly apologize for having raped a woman in the past. Such a speech was "a grotesque misuse of the event," recalled Litty Paxton, a School of Arts and Sciences graduate student who attended the 1995 rally. "It's inappropriate for a rapist to stand up and ask for time in front of a group of women survivors," she said in an interview last week. In the aftermath of the incident, the event's organizers were confronted with a barrage of questions: Is an open-mike forum safe and appropriate? Should men be allowed to speak at the Survivor Speakout? If men are allowed to speak, should they be able to march with the women as well? Another issue raised by the open-mike format concerns the well-being of the survivors who decide to share their experiences. "In the past, after an open forum, the Women's Center was flooded with people who had spoken up [and been] caught up in the powerful nature of the whole event, then regretted it later," said NOW co-chairperson Hema Sarangapani, a College sophomore. Additionally, several participants said they were intimidated by the thought of having revealed intimate details about their pasts to hundreds of strangers, NOW co-chairperson and College junior Sapana Donde said. To prevent a repetition of the 1995 incident and to protect women who might not be ready to talk about their experience to a large group of people, NOW restricted the forum at last year's rally to a small number of people who had notified the event's organizers a few weeks before the event, Donde said. Looking back at the decision, however, College senior Marissa Engel said she felt frustrated that last year's Survivor Speakout had not been an open-mike forum. "Take back the Night is about freedom, to walk the streets without fear and to speak one's mind without restriction," Engel said. "How can a woman be free if she has to ask permission to speak?" A changing tradition This year, by contrast, the Survivor Speakout will again be open-mike -- but open only to women. "If we lived in a world where half the sex crimes were committed by men and half by women, and the victims were also half-and-half, then a co-ed speakout would be called for," Paxton said. "But it's extremely important to understand that the reality is women are victims in sexual crimes 90 percent of the time." At last year's rally, Paxton stressed that Take Back the Night was "designed by women with the intention of helping other women," a remark which enraged many of the men at the event. In angry exchanges in the letters pages of The Daily Pennsylvanian over the next few days, several students accused Paxton of being hypocritical for barring men from an event designed, in part, to eliminate sexism. In one such letter, Medical School staffer Craig Abbs, who identified himself as a victim of sexual violence, said the event should give all survivors a chance to speak -- with "no gender attached." Engineering graduate student Joseph Gentile wrote in a separate letter that "Paxton seems so blinded by her aggressions that she is refusing the additional aid of men who want to aid her in her struggle." Last week, Paxton conceded that women need help from men in overcoming the struggle against sexism, noting that women should not be solely responsible for abolishing sexual crime. The larger point, she stressed, is that the event should give women the chance to speak about their experiences and men the chance to listen. "Men need to do some thinking about [sexual violence against women] and how they stand in relation to these problems," Paxton added. Titi Yu, the former president of Penn's NOW chapter, added that men are welcome to come to event, but only to listen and support the women. "We ask the men to understand that this is a women-centric event," said Yu, a College senior. "Women need to take the leadership in this event, and they need to be able to speak out on their own." Abbs, who has attended Take Back the Night since 1994, said he does not disagree with the idea of a woman-centric event, but added that the policy of not allowing male survivors to speak has to be clearly advertised and explained before the event takes place. "It really demoralizes men who come prepared to speak," he said. "It's like saying just because you are only 10 percent [of sexual assault cases], you are not significant." Take Back the Night's original incarnation in San Francisco was not conceived as an event designed to fight sexual violence in general, but instead one designed to specifically address violence against women, Sarangapani said. "This isn't just about a crime against humanity," she said. "It's a gendered crime. It happens because the victims are women." Paxton added that while she sympathized with male victims of sexual violence, "It really isn't too much to ask that one day out of year, we have an event set aside for women." Counselors from Women Organized Against Rape will be present at tonight's open-mike forum to provide support to survivors and to make sure they are ready to speak to a large group about their experience, Donde said. Also, men will join the women in the rally's traditional march around campus -- another modification from last year, when men were asked to stay behind. The march is symbolic of women "taking back" the right to walk the streets at night. Engel, who feels men should be allowed to speak at the forum but not allowed to march, said male participation in the march reduces its significance. "Men already have a greater physical advantage walking alone at night," Engel said. "If your whole life you've been told you need a man to support you, and men accompany you on the march, then Take Back the Night is not promoting change." After the march and speak-out, NOW will facilitate two discussion groups. One, in room B-6 of Stiteler Hall, will be open to everyone present at the rally who would like to discuss the issue in a smaller group setting. Another group -- the "confidential survival circle" -- will be open only to female and male survivors at the Women's Center. Counselors and clinicians will also be present at the circle to help the survivors cope. An uncertain future Although Penn's event annually draws about 500 students, it is nowhere near the magnitude of the event at Columbia University and its all-women affiliate, Barnard College, according to Engel, a Barnard transfer. "The whole school comes out, and it lasts all night -- virtually everyone speaks," Engel said. In a school with more than 20,000 students, Engel stressed that Penn's turnout of about 500 people is rather unimpressive. But Paxton said the low turnout is not surprising when viewed in context of Penn's "apolitical" nature as a university, characterized by a lack of student rallies or sit-ins. Engel attributed the low turnout to women who feel their lives cannot flourish without being attached to a man and to men who feed off of that sentiment. "Being a woman in a woman's college is a different experience," Engel said. "It's something to celebrate, rather than to compensate for."

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