The first Take Back the Night March took place here in 1979 as a way for women to band together and reclaim their right to safely walk the streets of Athens at night. Every year since then, the TBTN March has always included only people who identify as female. This year, that tradition is changing.
For the first time in Athens, this year’s march welcomes people of all gender identities. While on the surface, this inclusivity is a move towards a community united in solidarity against gendered and sexual violence, the event is sending mixed-messages.
Much like the image of Iwo Jima adorning flyers and t-shirts, TBTN has been taken out of its historical context.
1979 was just seven years after “women’s hours” were abolished at the university. It was the same year that a “women’s studies” program was officially established on campus. Fortunately, women at OU and in this community have come far in the last 36 years.
But TBTN as a women-only space connected the women in this community to that history. It acknowledged that this march filled a void and came from a particular moment when women had no other way to unite. It legitimized the voices of those pioneering women and brought together the voices of women over 36 years in solidarity across time.
It was a women’s empowerment movement and a space for those who feel the night has been taken away from them to reclaim the right to feel safe in this town. As the movement has evolved, it has been a place for women to unite to fight back against sexual violence; violence that is overwhelmingly gendered and overwhelmingly directed toward women.
However, we all know women are not the only victims of sexual violence.
There is a clear need to have spaces on campus and in the community that address how sexual violence affects people who identify as men, women, or outside of the gender binary. We should be creating spaces where members of the LGBT community, people of color, heterosexual men, and other affinity groups have a place to discuss how sexual violence uniquely affects them. We also need spaces to come together as one and talk about this as a problem that affects all of us, our university, and the community as a whole.
With all of that in mind, we have one question to consider: Is the TBTN march that space? I would argue it is not. I would argue that TBTN, especially with this year’s focus on inclusivity, could and should be a place to start to ask these questions. It should be a springboard to push for similar movements that acknowledge sexual violence as a wider problem and address the needs of other communities that women may not share.
Instead, this year’s TBTN march has been a point of contention. It has been a source of stress for many women, those who it was originally intended to empower. While this comes partly from gender-inclusivity, to me the bigger problem is that this decision was made behind closed doors by a very small group.
It seems that none of these issues were publicly discussed until this Tuesday’s inclusion panel. Unfortunately, I think this was a missed opportunity to have discussions about the legacy of TBTN, how sexual violence uniquely affects different groups, and how we can best create an environment that is truly inclusive and balances the needs of individual groups with the needs of the community as a whole. In the future, I hope opportunities like this will be seized to do just that.
Nonetheless, as a woman on this campus who has been given the advice not to walk alone at night time and time again and who doesn't feel safe on Court Street on a Friday night, I plan to march this Thursday and take back the night. I encourage all others who feel similarly to do the same.
Katie Conlon is a sophomore studying history and a member of F--kRapeCulture.
