Students and faculty members gathered to protest sexual violence during the annual "Take Back the Night" march and candlelight vigil last night.
Take Back the Night, begun in Germany in 1973, includes events held all over the world that voice a common demand "that the perpetrators of this violence be held accountable and be made to change."
Participants met in front of the Hop and listened to opening comments by Katie Oliviero '01 before marching with signs and chants around the campus.
Oliviero likened sexual assault to a form of terrorism. "Sex is used as a tool of violence," Oliviero said. "It is a strategy of war."
She also reinforced facts about sexual assault that were passed out to the participants on pamphlets, especially those pertaining to college-age women.
"College students are at a higher risk" for assault, Oliviero said. "It is most prominent in the first two months of college."
According to the pamphlet, one in four college women has been a victim of sexual assault, while only 27 percent of college women whose assault met the definition of rape considered themselves rape victims.
Oliviero also censured the College, arguing that Dartmouth "tacitly condones" sexual violence by "failing to separate perpetrators permanently" from the school. Those who commit sexual assault receive less punishment than those who plagiarize, Oliviero said.
Standing on the steps of Dartmouth Hall, philosophy professor Susan Brison spoke about the violence that permeates our culture and read excerpts from her recently published book, "Aftermath."
Brison read a passage about her experience of being sexually assaulted and nearly killed in France. She spoke about what it was like to be lying face down in a gully, beaten and strangled, fighting to live, and related her experience to the recent Zantop murders.
Brison said that she considered the Zantop murders to be sexually motivated, in that they stem from cultural perceptions of masculinity and violence. "We are raising our boys to be violent and not to be empathetic," Brison said.
The march stopped again in front of Collis to hear Men's Project intern Brian Greenough '03 speak about how the Project hoped to address men's role in sexual assault.
"The Men's Project seeks to involve men in education and prevention activities relating to sexual violence," Greenough said. "The Men's Project is about being brave enough to say how you feel. Most men are not rapists."
At other stops during the march, students read poems and statements relating to sexual violence and gender issues. The march ended with an emotional candlelight vigil on the Green, a "safe space" where participants could share their emotions and experiences. The Rockapellas also performed songs that related to sexual abuse.
