Take Back the Night

The roots of the Take Back the Night rally are disputed. Many different groups have claimed to have developed the idea for the first march. The history of this march may go as far back as 1877 when British women protested the fear and violence they experienced in the nighttime streets of London, England. Others believe that the first rally occurred in 1976 when women attending the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women lit candles and took to the moonlit streets of Belgium to denounce the continuation of violence against women. Regardless of its exact starting point, the impact of the Take Back the Night marches is undisputed. Thousands of marches and rallies bearing the name Take Back the Night have taken place worldwide.

Take Back the Night made its way to the United States in 1978 when protesters in San Francisco invoked the slogan following an anti-pornography conference. On that night, the speeches focused on women whose lives had been affected by pornography and that tradition of sharing stories has become a standard for all future marches. Most present-day rallies offer survivors of violence an opportunity to give voice to their experiences and publicly affirm their transition from victim to survivor. Common components of Take Back the Night rallies include candlelight vigils, empowerment marches, and survivor testimonials. Generally, the marches are for women only, a point of some contention for many. The goal of a Take Back the Night march is for women to walk through the worst parts of their towns, through the areas where women are told not to go, without male protection, and reclaim the night as a place of safety and strength for women. Male supporters are often invited to meet the group at the end of the march and attend the rally and emotional sharing of experiences. Most groups, however, believe that the march itself must be only women because women have traditionally been unable to walk at night without some sort of protection. This march tries to break down that fear and uncertainty that all women walk around with every day, constantly aware of their surrounding and always watching for suspicious signs of interest from a passing man. The organizers of Take Back the Night wanted women to begin to occupy that space without fear and to regain their own sense of confidence in their ability to take care of themselves, even at night.

In recent years, the idea of taking back the night has been expanded to focus not just on violence from strangers but also on the violence that women encounter at the hands of men that they know well. Statistics indicate that the majority of attacks against women are from men that they know well: boyfriends, dates, husbands, friends, and family members. Because of this reality, Take Back the Night has tried to dispel the idea that women should be afraid of that stranger hiding in the bushes; rather, women should be as vigilant in guarding themselves from the men in their lives who hurt them. The march encourages [Page 1360]women to acknowledge the abuse and the signs of abuse that exist in their lives and to make a positive change in moving away from that relationship, whatever it may be. The goal is to encourage women to stand up for themselves against any kind of abuse from any man and regain their voice in this world.

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