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Main >> News Listing >> April 2005 >> Article ID 7763
 Despite the majority of Christina Aguilera songs playing. | Type: Internet Article |
| | Women rally against violence | Apr 11, 2005 | by Alia Orra
Summary:
But despite the majority of women and the Christina Aguilera songs playing, men made a showing, reading the T-shirts of the Clothesline Project and applauding the female survivors who spoke out
Read on for the whole article. |
A simple white tank top and a small pair of pink underwear hang from the clothesline wrapped around the lot behind the East Toledo Family Center.
Among the 200 or so T-shirts swinging slightly in the wind, it is the only one marked with the yellow tape - that indicates it was police evidence.
They belong to a survivor of rape - the flowery hair tie she wore that day still attached.
During the annual Take Back the Night event, held Friday, more than 200 people gathered outside, reading the T-shirts from the Clothesline Project and listening to poetry by survivors of violence against women.
When night fell, women carried signs through East Toledo in a march demanding an end to the victimization of women, while men attended a program about stopping violence against women.
Statistics say one in six women in the United States have survived rape or attempted rape - more than 80 percent committed by a perpetrator who knows the victim, according to Diane Docis, an organizer of the rally and coordinator of UT's sexual assault education and prevention program, in a news release for the event.
"I think that it's important to do this every year because as many years as we do this, people still aren't aware of the violence against women in the community," said Gabrielle Davis, director of the domestic violence clinic at UT's College of Law. "We have new survivors every day ... unfortunately."
The march is solely female-powered, Davis said, because the women are "symbolically taking back the street."
But despite the majority of women and the Christina Aguilera songs playing, men made a showing, reading the T-shirts of the Clothesline Project and applauding the female survivors who spoke out.
The Clothesline Project gave Albert Chaffin, an MCO student, the chance to see the emotional evolution of survivors and the families of women who were killed.
"I think it just captured the reality of the situation ... kind of leaves you speechless," Chaffin said. "The people are personified by the shirts. It makes you feel like you're talking to the person."
Later in the rally, a survivor, Adrienne Veitch, stood before the microphone, her blonde hair tied up, her voice girlish and young.
She said the night she was raped was "the death" of her being.
But she survived, and is a graduate of Bowling Green State University and now an MCO student studying physical therapy.
She's published in "Voices of Courage: Inspiration from Survivors of Sexual Assault" and participates as an organizer of Take Back the Night.
"We let society know that this is a problem and we're not going to stand for it," Veitch said later. "That violence occurs to all women ... it crosses all barriers."
She said whether the general community is aware, "someone in their life is affected by violence against women. The statistics show it."
The mixture of positivism and tragedy struck Joanna Bopp, a senior majoring in women's and gender studies at UT and an intern in the sexual assault and prevention program.
"It's just great to see so many different faces and so many people supporting a cause they believe in," Bopp said. "It's incredibly heartbreaking, it's incredibly moving ... it's something that needs to be seen." |
 Source: The Independent Collegian | |
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