Take Back the Night has a rich history, and it provides a therapeutic outlet for a lot of the women I know who participate, be they survivor or ally. However, the very basis of the event recalls an era of heteronormativity and gender binarism. This event makes many assumptions about men and women, and it erases the gender identities of people like me, who identify as neither male nor female. The scene depicted in Take Back the Night is a woman walking home at night who is jumped by a man and subsequently assaulted, even though we know that more than 75 percent of people who are assaulted are attacked by someone they know and often trust (National Institute of Justice Violence Against Women Survey, 2000). An event centered on sexual-assault prevention should discuss acquaintance rape, which is the most common kind of sexual assault. An event centered on ending rape culture that focuses only on women is outdated and defunct.
There is no contesting that in terms of sheer numbers, it is most often women who are assaulted, and it is most often men who do the assaulting. That is where this event and reality diverge. As the speaker Micheal Outrich’s story shows, men can be raped too. Trans*/third gender/gender non-conforming individuals are extremely vulnerable to rape as well. As the organizer of the National Transgender Day of Remembrance, I can tell you that most of these assaults end in murder. Where do survivors of woman-on-woman sexual violence fit into the scheme of things? A quote from one of the speakers at the event discussed how “men with guns ... devoted husbands ... (or) confused boyfriends” may all transgress women’s bodies and rape. Does a queer woman survivor of abuse at her partner’s hand not fit into the theme of the march? I personally know men and trans* folks who have been assaulted and have no space to divulge this information. LGBTQ people experience sexual violence at rates three times higher than the heterosexual population (National Report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 2010). If anything, there should be a specific emphasis and time for LGBTQ people to tell their stories at Take Back the Night.
The point of this letter is that Take Back the Night reinforces the very patriarchy that it seeks to destroy. The experiences of trans* and queer people are invalidated, while male survivors’ experiences are totally erased. Meanwhile, women are instructed to unite with each other and separate from the men to prevent sexual assault and violence from occurring, exacerbating the constant victim-blaming that feminine people are forced to endure every day. If a humanistic approach to assault and rape culture is adopted, separation of any and all genders is counterintuitive.
By ignoring the true nature of sexual assault and the underlying system of privilege and oppression, the potential impact of an event like Take Back the Night is minimized. All are capable of assaulting, and all might be assaulted in their lifetime. The experiences of queer people, men, and genders other than male and female as survivors offers a new way to destroy the gender binary that allows for the power differential between men, women, and other genders. This is a basis for undermining rape culture. Queer people, women, and people of genders other than men and women cast as possible assailants help de-escalate the polarization of men/assailants versus women/survivors.
If the goal of Take Back the Night is still to end sexual assault and rape, it must aim to do so from a place of compassion and understanding for all survivors and with a policy of intolerance toward all who would assault.
Ryan Vollrath is a junior studying history and psychology at Ohio University.
