Editorial
Marching Against the Tide
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On Friday, a small group of Cornell students marched and chanted their way from Ho Plaza, through the streets of Collegetown, and on towards the Commons, where they took part in Ithaca’s annual “Take Back the Night.”
Now a nation-wide event, “Take Back the Night” is an evening of protest against sexual assault and other forms of violence; its aim is to allow women to take ownership of the night as a symbol of their fear and vulnerability.
This Friday, participants in “Take Back the Night” were forced to march through Collegetown to a beat that ran counter to their rhythmic chants. As the group moved through the streets, it was met with some scornful jeers and hostile cries. At the pinnacle of its march, the group was even asked, loudly, to “SHUT UP!”
The stigma that surrounds agitating on behalf of women’s rights remains pervasive on this campus. At an educational institution where female students enjoy the same rights and opportunities as their male peers, “women’s issues” continue to be seen as superfluous, relegated to the isolated and undesirable sphere of the “feminist.”
Like no other issue on campus, the cause of women’s equality remains absent from campus-wide public discourse. While concerns surrounding continued racial tensions or discrimination based on sexual orientation are typical topics of conversation, “women’s rights” and the gendered issues of sexual violence, domestic assault and physical abuse seem to fall outside the domain of popular preoccupation.
A recent National Violence Against Women Survey found that over 17 percent of women in the United States have survived a completed or attempted rape.
It is likely that every student on campus knows someone who has been victimized by violence because of their gender. Why is it, then, that a bulk of campus can be silent on an issue that directly affects such a large and diverse group of students?
Annually, the Cornell crowd at “Take Back the Night” is surpassed in size by Ithaca College students. Admittedly, turnout at the event is hardly a litmus test of social commitment. Still, it is the absence of discussion about continued challenges facing female students, and women in general, that is so disheartening.
The extent to which issues such as race-based discrimination and homophobia continue to plague the country is indisputable. And we can be proud that Cornell students have mobilized to address those problems on campus. But concerns specific to women must not be marginalized. Gender equality is not a social victory that precedes our time, but is, rather, a not-yet-attained goal, ever relevant to our generation.
Or,
your activities might have simply disturbed those living or going about their business in Collegetown. Simply being told to "Shut up!" does not constitute some grand sex-biased conspiracy.
"It is likely that every student on campus knows someone who has been victimized by violence because of their gender. Why is it, then, that a bulk of campus can be silent on an issue that directly affects such a large and diverse group of students?"
Perhaps...
1) Not every student knows someone who has been victimized because of their gender, meaning the problem is not as prevalent as you suggest.
2) Many of the cases of "victimization" are not gender-based, but are labelled as such to make statistics more sensational.
3) Perhaps the problem is as prevalent and serious as you say. What is the intended benefit of the protest other than to give the participants a false sense that they've accomplished something? Awareness is overrated, and does nothing to solve the issue itself.
"The extent to which issues such as race-based discrimination and homophobia continue to plague the country is indisputable"
Yet, despite your insistence otherwise, those issues have been disputed frequently by sane, non-prejudiced people.