After years of undertaking different roles during Take Back the Night week, this year the men of Ohio University will do their part by lending a supportive voice from the sidelines.
In past years, men have walked with or beside the women. It is a decision made every year for whatever is most empowering to women
often surrounded by controversy and debate, said Susan Burgess, director of the Women's Studies Program.
The men will not be marching in this year's march, but they will give the same support, said Pat Hanlin, a graduate student at OU and a Resident Director at Marietta College.
I really value the men in the community who take their role very seriously said Monica Ganguly, vice-president of the Feminist Coalition. While I do agree that men are very important to the problem and the solution I don't think that they should walk beside me
she said.
Ganguly is a veteran of Take Back the Night marches in other cities. She said a march at the University of Maryland did not have the same effect as the march at OU, in part because it included men actually walking beside the women.
Basically it comes down to what the march is about
she said. If it were just about sexual assault, it should allow men, she said. But it is about sisterhood as well.
In general the men have been very accepting of their role as supporters, said Ganguly.
This group has decided that's what they want to do
and I support that
said Hanlin. What's really important is that groups don't split apart. We're on the same side.
Last year the men had the choice to walk in the silent part of the march. Other men stood along Jefferson Hill with candles.
We make sure to stay silent so it's the women's voices that are heard and not ours
said Ted Layman, an undergraduate and a member of OU Men Against Sexism.
This year, the men plan to make banners and run ahead to meet the women at different stops of the march.
Hanlin and Layman are also involved in facilitating a discussion about how men can get involved in the fight against sexual assault at Baker Center tonight at 7:30, following a speech by Gordon Braxton, a sexual assault activist who won the Men of Vision award in 2002.
I don't think men's violence against women will stop until men become actively involved in the situation
Hanlin said. That is the main reason he believes men should be involved in advocating for awareness against sexual assault.
He also is concerned because it happens to people he loves and cares about.
Hanlin said that the cultural norms supporting men being violent against women are harmful to men as well as women, limiting men emotionally and giving them skewed ideas about what is acceptable behavior.
I want to help men bond together that are alone in their fight to help women
said Layman. Just to renew hope -hope is the most powerful force in any kind of social movement.
