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Kansan
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4A
Thursday, October 22,1998
Editorials
Womyn Take Back the Night is for anyone who is against violence
Although domestic and random violence against women has been an issue for several decades, women and children still are often in danger. "Womyn Take Back the Night" is trying to put women and children out of danger.
The rally on Oct.22 will be a chance for women and men to not only draw attention to the problem of violence against women and children, but also strive for solutions.
Events begin at 5 p.m. in South Park, where information booths from campus groups and causes will be available to view along with the clothesline project. The clothesline project is a display of T-shirts made by victims of violence reflecting their experiences.
The event focuses on women but does not entirely exclude men.
fence reflecting their shapes. The rest of the night will consist of musical, poetic and other performances; a women's march along Massachusetts Street to the train park; and women's and men's circles.
The women's circle is a place where women and children who are survivors of rape, violence or abuse and friends of silent victims can share their experiences. The men's circle will take place at the gazebo, where men will discuss
ways in which they can help prevent violence against women and children.
The idea of excluding men from the Massachusetts Street march and from the circle at the train park is sometimes misunderstood. The idea is not to exclude men entirely, but to allow women and children to take back the night by themselves.
Although the focus is on women regaining confidence and asserting their right to feel safe at any time, the rally should not be exclusive. Anyone — regardless of age or gender — who wants to share in an activity aimed at stopping violence should be allowed to participate.
Erinn R. Barcomb for the editorial board
KU Recreation survey good call
During the month of October, the University of Kansas, through an independent organization, will be conducting a telephone survey of students about Robinson Center and plans for a new or expanded recreation on campus.
This has been a thorny issue on campus for many years. Students have voted against fee increases, fearing that any improvements made would take effect too late for them to enjoy the results. This survey could change that perception.
There were questions about the quality of the survey itself. Some students feared that the survey would be written to reflect the biases and agendas of the student body president and vice president. This fear was fed by
Students should take it seriously and answer questions candidly.
the fact that Kevin Yoder and Scott Kaiser wrote the survey themselves.
This fear has proven to be unfounded. Yoder and Kaiser borrowed the format for the survey (with permission) from a similar survey at Washington State University.
nities to review and rephrase questions in the survey. They also presented it to Donald Haider-Markel, Director of the Campus Research Center, for statistical review and analysis. He made changes to eliminate statistical bias and errors from the survey.
After they changed the questions to fit the University's situation, they presented the survey to Student Senate for review and rewriting. Senate, the Recreation Advisory Board and the Campus Recreation Task Force have all taken advantage of opportunity.
Students owe it to themselves and to future members of the KU community to take this survey seriously. Yoder, Kaiser and everyone else connected with this project have gone to considerable measures to learn what students really want out of a recreation center at the University. Students should return the favor by answering truthfully and thoughtfully if they are contacted to be part of this survey.
Jennifer Roush for the editorial board
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"Our first and last love is — self-love." — Bovee
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Perspective
Womyn take back night demand safe truth circle
Take Back the Night started in Europe, with the first United States event reportedly taking place in San Francisco in 1978. Take Back the Night originally focused on
assist of women, but has broadened in scope nationwide. The first Lawrence Take Back the Night March took place on April 14, 1983. Although the format of the Lawrence march has changed over time, the march in its present form includes a rally for all participants.
In its present form, the Lawrence Take Back the Night march includes a rally for all participants; a circle/speakout for women, children and youth; a men's rally; and a women's and children's march. At the circle/speakout, commonly referred to as the women's circle, women, youth and children have the opportunity to share their experiences. We created, and adamantly support, the women's circle to give women a safer space to liberate themselves of shame, fear and isolation, and to have the truths of their lives heard, acknowledged and believed.
Jennifer Roth
Guest Columnist
Deena Wilson
Guest Columnist
The circle is unique in this
aspect, as there is no other space in society at large where this can occur on a regular basis. For some participants, this is the only place where they feel empowered and safe enough to tell their story.
In telling the truth of their lives at both the circle and the rally, women have occasionally spoken the names of their perpetrators. Contrary to popular belief, the actual naming of perpetrators is not routine. Yet, it is the primary focus of many people's concern. Concentrating on a small part of the larger whole fails to recognize the overall experience and purpose of the circle. However, when naming does occur, life-changing experiences for survivors have followed. For example, we have personally witnessed women, who previously suffered in isolation, come to know that they were victimized by the same person.
During the years, participants and organizers of the march have been threatened with lawsuits and criticized for allowing women to speak about their experiences without restraint. Although we could strictly address these contentions with law and so-called reason, for which we collectively have the formal training, we consciously do not because to do so is to intellectualize away women's and children's experiences.
Their experiences, especially those of individuals who are survivors of violence, may intersect with law and/or reason, but their experiences largely exist outside the realm of both, as neither law nor reason was designed to
acknowledge the truths of women's and children's lives.
Summary, what occurs in the circle is not nurtured and perpetuated by law or reason; instead, it is the business of people who have been traditionally and deliberately silenced by both. To analogize the circle to any decision-making body, especially one with state-sanctioned power, is fallacious. We do not have the power or authority to fire, indict or penalize anyone named as a perpetrator. The power we derive from the circle is the power to make choices affecting our safety and the safety of our families or loved ones.
For two hours, survivors can speak their truths because their experiences are the property of their minds, hearts and bodies. Interestingly, no one has sued us, maybe because survivors can level the legal defense that what they said was the truth. We contend that many people's ultimate fear is not that women will lie but that they will tell the truth. This fear manifested itself at the arch two years ago when unidentified people ran through the park and stole t-shirts from the Clothesline Project that had been painstakingly created by survivors.
There is an African proverb that says if one woman spoke the truth of her life, the world would break open. Not so long ago, there were no battered women's shelters, no rape crisis hotlines and no language to talk about sexual harassment, marital rape or domestic violence. Women risked shame, stigmatization and more violence to share with each other their experiences of survival. The outrageous and committed efforts of women and their allies broke the world open.
Rape Victim-Survivor Service was founded in Lawrence in 1972. In 1974, the first recognized shelter for battered women and their children opened in St. Paul, Minn. Women's Transitional Care Services, the shelter in Lawrence for battered women and their children, started in 1976 as a network of safehomes and opened their first shelter in 1978. The work of women and their allies also has resulted in recognition of the battered women's defense, programs dedicated to addressing woman-to-woman violence, support groups for survivors of violence and the Violence Against Women Act, just to give a few examples. We know the power of the truth and understand our responsibility to encourage truthtelling and coalition building in order to further social change.
In our struggle to be allies to all women, we recognize that the circle needs improvement. We know work needs to be done to make the circle safer for women of color, queer women, survivors of woman-to-woman violence, trans people, women with disabilities and all other women who have a right to claim that space. We hold accountability as an important value, which is evidenced by our constant challenges to make the march and the circle safer.
Roth, an organizer of the march, is a '98 KU law graduate. Wilson is a Simi Valley, Calif., senior in social welfare.
Naming at women's circle gives accused no recourse
I want to address an issue that has remained unquestioned in Lawrence for far too long. This issue is the naming of names in the women's circle, which occurs during the
"Womyn Take Back the Night" parade. A group of women gather together in a circle in the park, and the intention, as I understand it, is to provide a forum of support for victims of violent crimes. The circle is devoted to empowerment, to increasing awareness and to providing a secure place in the night. I am not protesting these aspects of the circle nor have I ever been accused of improprieties by the circle.
Michael Bannen
Guest Columns
During part of the circle,
During part of the circle women get up in front of the group and one-by one name their attacker. Some women, not all, stand in front of the circle and name a specific person by their first and last name who has allegedly raped or violently abused them in some way.
Given that the subject of sexual violence is so emotionally charged, I wish to be perfectly clear with my intent. I am by no means criticizing or diminishing the movement against rapists and violent crimes. My intention is to protest and highlight the danger inherent in public accusation. My concern is with the specific section of the circle where people are named and accused.
I strongly think that any organized public demonstration, regardless of the issue, that names and condemns another person based only on personal testimony, is wrong. It is wrong because the accusers are not held accountable for the validity of their statements nor for the far-reaching social consequences that the accused incur from an accusation.
Neither the organizers of the "Womyn Take Back the Night" parade nor its participants make any effort to validate or control instances of false accusation. Those who speak in front of the circle do so based solely on their desire. Although this may seem wonderfully democratic and cathartic, it is very dangerous because there is no recourse for the accused if a woman were to lie. Whether a woman chooses to lie is irrelevant; the possibility of defamation exists.
Like McCarthyism, which sought to purge our society of communism, the circle's practice of naming names encourages the belief that mob justice, when it is cathartic, is acceptable. It isn't. Any cause that allows the sentiment of the many to overwhelm the reason of the individual is wrong. It is wrong because, as history has taught us, such practices create totalitarian environments where no one is safe from blame. As a society, we should never tolerate mob mentality or any forms of organized vigilantism. The women's circle is no exception.
Rape is a powerful word in our society, as it should be because of the crime's heinous nature. However, to employ the use of such a word and publicly vilify those who have not had the right to a fair hearing is reminiscent of the tactics employed during the McCarthy hearings. The words maybe different, but the effect is the same; public condemnation that bypasses the right to an impartial hearing in a court of law.
I do not deny that our legal system can and does fail to secure justice for some victims of sexual violence and this is, without a doubt, wrong. However, to swing the pendulum in the opposite direction by naming names in an organized march and to use public condemnation as a weapon of punishment also is wrong.
The intent of the circle is noble and necessary, and rape is a very serious crime that must be addressed. However, the method the circle employs is dangerous. Freedom of speech is the hallmark of democracy and should be protected. Yet, when it is abused in a manner in which potentially innocent people become victims, we as a society should stand against it. Just as the circle participants desire and deserve justice and the right to be heard, so to do the accused deserve the right to a fair hearing. The practice of naming specific names in the women's circle should be abolished.
Bannen is a Lawrence senior in philosophy.
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