COLUMN: Take Back Your Rights

From Jordana Horn "In Possibility," Fall '94 From Jordana Horn "In Possibility," Fall '94On Thursday, Penn women will take back the night. But in light of a rash of sexual attacks on campus this fall and the use of rape as a weapon in Bosnia, several campus groups have rallied around Take Back the Night, a common exercise of activism on campuses across the country. This is a ritual which centers around the idea of women and their friends reclaiming the streets on which they feel endangered by night. Participants will march through campus, carrying candles to ward off the night's fear, creating a tunnel of safety to College Green. And this is where a speakout for survivors of sexual violence and their friends will occur. If it is like similar rituals at other colleges nationwide, an open microphone will beckon participants to tell their accounts of assault. These accounts can be personal or those of a friend. They can be long, or they can be short. They can be muffled cries for understanding, or clarion calls for retribution. But they can be true, or they can be false -- whether that falsehood lies in the facts at hand or in the supposed empowerment of women through this ritual. Take Back the Night is meant to empower women by encouraging those who have previously remained silent to come forward and find their voices. Certainly, I am an unabashed proponent of the freedom to say whatever the participants may want. But an open microphone and an overwrought heart can lead to things being said that people just might regret. The scenario of Take Back the Night, as positive as many find it, seems to be an inherently double bind. On the one hand, I feel it is unfair for the night to become a Salem-like ritual in which those accused of sexual violence are castigated and shunned with no semblance of due process. On the other hand, if names are not mentioned, there is no guarantee that the ritual will not fall into the pattern that it has at many other schools: participants take the microphone and tell stories that are not true per se, but are "composites." However, the truth of the matter, many people would argue, lies at the heart of its intent: to empower women. But does the ritual truly, as its organizers would want it, empower women? Will bombarding the night with painful stories insure that action will be taken to stop these stories from occurring -- and women from being silent? Why not invite lawyers who have successfully prosecuted rapists? Why not invite people who have stood up to rapists in court, and have won? Why not speak about ways to reform the University's judicial system so that victims of rape will feel more at ease speaking out, when it is so tempting to remain cloaked in anonymity? Why, instead, has the speakout's empowerment traditionally focused on tales of victimage? This cathartic ritual is meant to celebrate survivors. But celebrate what? We do not want to celebrate speaking out into the darkness, but rather a truer kind of empowerment -- confronting injustice through justice. It's terrific that Penn's Take Back the Night organizers have invited the Pennsylvania NOW president to speak, because this is the kind of constructive speech that should begin here. True stories should and must be told. And true criminals should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But the possibility of using the night as a handkerchief for sorrows will raise awareness among people who are already all too aware of the problem of date rape. But I hope Take Back the Night at Penn will spend more time shedding light on solutions. Jordana Horn is a junior Communications major from Short Hills, New Jersey and Executive Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. in Possibility appeared alternate Tuesdays.