A night of awareness

In planning this year's Take Back the Night, some concern was raised about the coincidence of this event with Pre-Frosh Weekend this year. Although this concern resulted from a misunderstanding and was quickly assuaged with a short dialogue, it left me thinking: how would a pre-frosh respond to Take Back the Night?

My initial thought was, "Sexual violence, especially dating violence, occurs on every campus. Pre-frosh will be impressed to see that Princeton has so many students speaking out against sexual violence and such a strong support network for victims." However, over the last few weeks of planning Take Back the Night, I've thought more about why I became involved in the event in the first place, and reconsidered my assumption about pre-frosh.

It was hearing about the Take Back the Night event in 1999 — my freshman year — that prompted my own involvement in the planning of this year's event. That year, only a dozen students participated in Take Back the Night. When the small group walked through Holder Courtyard, they were greeted with loud, obscene and sexually suggestive comments.

This was supposed to be Princeton's opportunity to express support for survivors of sexual violence. Instead Princeton ridiculed these women both by not taking two hours on a weekend night to show support, and by harassing those standing up against sexual violence. If that was the level of support the Princeton community could show for survivors of sexual violence on the one night out of the year devoted to the issue, what does that say about the atmosphere on campus generally?

As a pre-frosh, and in my first few months as a student, I didn't think much of sexual violence or dating violence at Princeton. Hearing about Take Back the Night 1999 changed that, especially in light of another incident during my freshman year: walking back from the Street one winter night, a (male) friend and I were threatened by a few fellow students. For a while after the incident, I went to extreme lengths to avoid walking around campus by myself at night. I no longer go to such extreme lengths, but I am certainly more cautious than I was freshman fall.

Yet, unlike one in four female college students, as determined by a Wellesley study, I have never been raped. And although I have never been sexually assaulted, I, like many women with male acquaintances, have been rendered uncomfortable by certain physical contact that sits on the delicate line between friendly and harassing.

It's unsettling to me that contact from a friend can put me on edge. But it's difficult for me not to be apprehensive, knowing that, according to a 1988 survey of college students, 84 percent of women who were raped knew their assailants.

This uneasiness and consequent restriction of movement and freedom is the effect that sexual violence has for the people beyond its immediate victims. The existence of rape, acquaintance rape and sexual assault in our society and on this campus prevents many women like myself from ever feeling entirely comfortable. I think it is very difficult for men to understand this phenomenon. Certainly, men are not free of sexual violence; the fact that between seven and 10 percent of all adult rape victims are male is a statistic that is overlooked far too often. But I have yet to meet a male who is similarly wary of walking alone at night on this campus, a remarkably safe place indeed.

It is because I feel this way that Take Back the Night is important to me. Only by increasing awareness of sexual violence on this campus, and providing a safe and supportive forum for survivors to come forward about their experiences, can we combat the incidence of sexual violence here at Princeton and in society at large. Not until we have faced the problem of sexual violence, and worked to decrease its incidence, will women like myself feel entirely at ease walking around Princeton, and interacting with male acquaintances. That is what it means to Take Back the Night: to reclaim that feeling of security and comfort in our surroundings. And if I don't feel safe here, I can hardly imagine how someone who has been raped or sexually assaulted must feel.

The University community has made some visible progress since my freshman year — most noticeably, by coming out in increasing numbers to Take Back the Night — but more remains to be done. As a community, we must combat sexual violence — by educating our community, supporting victims and standing up against sexual violence — every day, not just one night a year.

But, whether you're a senior or a pre-frosh, that one night a year — Saturday night — is a great place to start. Julie Straus is a Wilson School major from Potomac, Md. She can be reached at straus@princeton.edu.