Late one cool April night, you’re seated in the Amphitheatre surrounded by a few friends and hundreds of strangers. You hold out a hand in front of your face, but the night is so black that you can’t see anything as you wiggle your fingers. A few candles flicker in the hands of the students around you. Suddenly, a voice cuts through the darkness, timid at first but gaining strength with each new syllable: “I am a survivor of sexual assault.”
Welcome to Take Back the Night’s candlelight vigil, one part of a week-long campaign to raise awareness of sexual assault at the University. The program, now in its twenty-first year at the University, is described by public relations chair Nora Eakin as “a highly public event that really speaks to the consciousness and awareness among students of the problem of sexual violence, and an active desire to prevent it.”
Sexual assault is an issue that is all too easy to push to the fringes of our consciousness. It’s easy to think that it couldn’t happen to you, because you don’t drink that much, or you don’t dress in short skirts, or you’re always careful when you’re walking at night. Unfortunately, the reality is that sexual assault can happen to anyone, and that more often than not — as frequently as 7 times out of 10, according to United States Bureau of Justice statistics — the attacker is somebody that the victim knows. The fear of a stranger jumping from an alley is a real one, but what’s far more likely is a familiar face in a familiar place taking things just a little too far.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 20 to 25 percent of college women will experience rape or attempted rape during their four years at a university. At the University of Virginia, a study done in 2006 of about 800 college women found that 19 percent were victims of rape while at the University, 10 percent victims of attempted rape, and 34 percent victims of unwanted sexual contact.
These statistics are staggering, but considering the college culture in which we live, they’re less surprising than they seem at first glance. Our generation has been termed the “hook-up generation” for our tendency to shy away from serious relationships while remaining sexually promiscuous. This new style of courtship, to use the term quite loosely, grew out of the sexual revolution, when new forms of contraception, like the birth control pill, decreased stigma regarding premarital sex and the availability of legal abortion resulted in less anxiety about the consequences of casual intercourse. As a result, we no longer equate emotional connectivity and responsibility with sexual encounters.
These “casual sex” situations can get messy quickly, especially when alcohol is involved, and one or both parties wake up with only a partial memory of what occurred. A girl may have no recollection of giving consent — and, technically, consent given while under the influence of drugs or alcohol is not legal consent —and a boy may not remember if he used any kind of protection. And while these kinds of gray areas, which are often painful for both parties, are all too frequent, malicious sexual assault — such as engaging in sexual acts with a girl against her explicit wishes or while she is drunk, drugged, or unconscious — is still a disturbingly common reality at college campuses across the country.
Take Back the Night is designed to help students understand the causes, consequences, and realities of sexual assault on college campuses. Last year, the candle light vigil alone was attended by over 600 students, faculty members, and community members. The vigil is proceeded by a rally with food and a capella performances and a march to demonstrate support and solidarity for survivors of sexual assault. Other campaigns include a panel on how to date someone who has been sexually assaulted in the past and a Sexual Assault Board mock trial that will help clarify the process involved in reporting a rape, attempted rape, or assault. “Hearing survivors’ stories makes sexual assault real in ways statistics and facts don’t — especially when those stories come from your peers,” said Eakin. “Getting people to realize that someone sitting next to them may have gone through this really makes one think twice about discounting our beloved Grounds as immune from these issues.”
Too often, victims of sexual assault are afraid to speak out. They blame themselves: If only I hadn’t worn that outfit, if only I hadn’t had that last drink, if only, if only. Furthermore, these women are often scared to report their attacks because their attacker was someone they knew or trusted, they’re afraid of being labeled a “slut,” or they want to believe that the whole thing just “wasn’t that big of a deal”. The truth, however, is that sexual assault is never the victim’s fault. Reporting it does not label one promiscuous or careless. Take Back the Night strives to show survivors of sexual assault that it is not only safe but right to report the violence they have experienced, and that there is a large community of people willing to offer help, hope, and support.
“We want to raise awareness and get people thinking about these issues, so they can support the survivors they know,” said Eakin. If you or somebody you love is a survivor of sexual assault, or if you’re simply moved by the frequency of sexual assault on college campuses, get involved in the University’s Take Back the Night programs next week.
Michelle Lamont is a Cavalier Daily Associate Editor. She can be reached at m.lamont@cavalierdaily.com.
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