The Clarion

Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Greg Lau Students march across campus, chanting, "Whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no!" The rally raised awareness about sexual assault and domestic violence. [Click to enlarge]

If you saw the marchers at the Take Back the Night rally last Wednesday night, you may have heard shouts of, "Women unite, take back the night," while others yelled, "I love multi-consensual sex!" Both slogans carried the same message: students at the University of Denver will not tolerate sexual assault.

The rally, which took place from 7:30-9:30 p.m., was held to raise awareness about sexual assault and domestic violence as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Week. In addition to a student march around the DU campus and surrounding neighborhoods, Take Back the Night also included a speaker at Sidelines Pub, a candlelight vigil on Driscoll Lawn and a chance for students to learn about assault awareness and prevention resources at DU.

About 40 men and women participated in the rally.

The keynote speaker for the night was Christina Linder, director of Women's Programs and Studies at Colorado State University, who focused on the complexity of the issue of sexual assault and how to begin solving the problem. She emphasized the need to address racial and gender issues when discussing assault and linked sexual violence to conflicts of "power and privilege."

Linder said there's not one answer to the root of the problem of sexual assault, but that "many factors intersect to create a culture where rape and intimate-partner violence thrive, and all of these are related to oppression."

Linder also stressed the importance of men playing a more active role in stopping sexual assault. Instead of a passive acceptance of sexism, she said, men should employ "bystander intervention" when they witness a potentially harmful situation and reject the traditional social standard of hyper-masculinity that often encourages sexism.

"As long as we hold men to impossible standards of masculinity, and hold women to impossible standards of femininity, and don't allow for any variation for either men or women, we are allowing a rape-supportive culture to thrive," said Linder.

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