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Tess Catalano assessment of Take Back the Night event, 1982
Assignment #2 Page 1
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[handwritten] #2 Catalano Last month a women-only event called Women Take Back the Night was held in College Green Park. The purpose of the rally, as stated many times by the rally organizers, was to offer women/a safe public space to speak out about the violence experienced in their lives. as such, the rally was judged successful by the rally organizers. Many issues developed concerning the event. In particular the issue of the "rights" of men to participate in the rally -- ostensibly because it was held in a public park. In light of the plans of the rally organizers to hold a women-only event, attempts on the part of men to exercise their "right" to enter the park and participate in the rally can only be seen as selfish, dis-ruptive and aiding the cultural permission given men to abuse women. The issue of rights is superfluous. Men who demanded to enter the park claiming they had a right to participate in the rally were only exercising a legal fist on the faces of the many women who were attending the rally. The rights of women have been violated for centuries. Women have been wanting and needing to enter the park, and public spaces like it, for years. Women can't -- because the risk is life threatening. (Sure, I can go in, I can also be kidnapped, raped, mutilated, and killed.) Men might say that it is not their fault that women cannot go into parks. They are wrong. It is their fault. Violence against women is a product of sexist culture. Men receive priviledge from that culture in exchange for contributing and condoning it. It is time that men started taking responsibility for the priviledge they re-ceive. men are priviledged because they are men. Everything that exist in the mainstream culture, exists for men: jobs, sports, education, religion, sex, not to mention violence, war and nuclear destruction. The culture in which we live is patriarchal, it is man-centered. It also hates women. It objectifies us, sells us, rapes us and kills us. So you want to talk about right? On
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[handwritten] #2 Catalano Last month a women-only event called Women Take Back the Night was held in College Green Park. The purpose of the rally, as stated many times by the rally organizers, was to offer women/a safe public space to speak out about the violence experienced in their lives. as such, the rally was judged successful by the rally organizers. Many issues developed concerning the event. In particular the issue of the "rights" of men to participate in the rally -- ostensibly because it was held in a public park. In light of the plans of the rally organizers to hold a women-only event, attempts on the part of men to exercise their "right" to enter the park and participate in the rally can only be seen as selfish, dis-ruptive and aiding the cultural permission given men to abuse women. The issue of rights is superfluous. Men who demanded to enter the park claiming they had a right to participate in the rally were only exercising a legal fist on the faces of the many women who were attending the rally. The rights of women have been violated for centuries. Women have been wanting and needing to enter the park, and public spaces like it, for years. Women can't -- because the risk is life threatening. (Sure, I can go in, I can also be kidnapped, raped, mutilated, and killed.) Men might say that it is not their fault that women cannot go into parks. They are wrong. It is their fault. Violence against women is a product of sexist culture. Men receive priviledge from that culture in exchange for contributing and condoning it. It is time that men started taking responsibility for the priviledge they re-ceive. men are priviledged because they are men. Everything that exist in the mainstream culture, exists for men: jobs, sports, education, religion, sex, not to mention violence, war and nuclear destruction. The culture in which we live is patriarchal, it is man-centered. It also hates women. It objectifies us, sells us, rapes us and kills us. So you want to talk about right? On
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