Ohio University’s Take Back the Night Week will cuProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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inate Thursday night with a march and rally to encourage women to literally take back the night.
The Justice Department estimates that one in four women in college will be victims of rape or attempted rape and that less than five percent of those will be reported.
“It is a tradition that reaches back decades on this campus as well as nationally, and also sends a powerful message that this campus needs to hear,” said Emma Wright, the Women’s Affairs Commissioner for Student Senate.
The Student Senate-sponsored event — which is expected to draw about 200 to 300 people — will kick off with speeches, music and candle lighting before marching around campus.
“You just feel (while marching) you’re taking back your freedom and you feel like you’re taking back your body and it’s empowering,” said Audrey Imes, president of Voices for Planned Parenthood.
The march has traditionally been a women-only event, with men being able to support from the sidelines. There is, however, some discussion that this might change, Wright said.
“I want to stress that we are not trying to marginalize men who have been assaulted,” Wright said. “We are actually working to try to incorporate (the topic of sexual assault against men) more into Take Back The Night next year.”
Imes said she wishes men could march.
“I know that it’s a survivor-to-survivor kind of thing,” Imes said. “But men get assaulted too and I know if I were a man I would feel very excluded in that sense.”
This year’s march still remains female-only, but Michael Outrich, a male survivor of sexual assault, will be speaking at the rally.
“Hopefully, survivors and other women come away from the rally feeling a sense of empowerment, and that no matter what happens to them, they have the strength to rise above it,” Wright said.
If You Go:
What: March and Rally
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Scripps Amphitheater
Admission: Free
What: After Party Hosted by Graduate Student Senate
When: 9 p.m. Thursday
Where: Buffalo Wild Wings
Admission: Free
je726810@ohiou.edu
