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Tess Catalano "Take Back the Night" and other academic essays, 1982

Take back the night rewrite assignment Page 4

permission. If you are sexist, if you benefit from sexism, then you benefit from the act of every rapist. The rapist merely acts out the sexist consciousness of the patriarchal society. When a woman is raped, all women are fearful, all women suffer -- and all men benefit.
   When all else fails, there will be screams of man-hating. (Always ignoring the fact that woman hating is institutionalized in this culture.) Charges of man-hating will come in the form of: "Well, not all men are rapists." or "Are you accusing me of being a rapist?" And I answer: How am I to know that you are not a rapist? There is no type. There are no clues. Fifty percent of all rapes happen between acquaintances. Men who were trusted at one time or another. A woman must base her survival on the facts that all rapist are men, and his victims are women. Charges of man-hating subtly or not so subtly hide the real accusation that any woman who feels like this must be a queer, a lesbian, a dyke. This is queer-baiting. Queer-baiting, at best, is a scare tactic that only exposes the more ignorant elements of mainline liberalism. It suggests that lesbians are the only women with good reason to hate men. It ignores the fact that all women are victims of violence, not just lesbians. I say that it is not unreasonable for a woman to hate men. Man-hating can be the singly most liberating and empowering experience for a woman. To finally, and personally, identify a hatred for a culture -- founded and perpetrated by and for men -- that hates her and everything feminine about her. The greatest tragedy is that [it?] queer-baiting works. It makes us afraid of our own justified anger. Instead, [we] women are asked to find the goodness in our hearts, to tolerate the atrocities of our lives, or we are silenced, denied the facts of our experience. If we do not comply, we are queer-baited and accused of man-hating. I will not justify my anger and hatred of men. It is real and it is reasonable.
   Violence is the need to maintain power. Violence, specifically directed towards women, is violence by men, in an effort to maintain control and power over women. It is a direct cause and product of the sexist mire in which we

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permission. If you are sexist, if you benefit from sexism, then you benefit from the act of every rapist. The rapist merely acts out the sexist consciousness of the patriarchal society. When a woman is raped, all women are fearful, all women suffer -- and all men benefit. When all else fails, there will be screams of man-hating. (Always ignoring the fact that woman hating is institutionalized in this culture.) Charges of man-hating will come in the form of: "Well, not all men are rapists." or "Are you accusing me of being a rapist?" And I answer: How am I to know that you are not a rapist? There is no type. There are no clues. Fifty percent of all rapes happen between acquaintances. Men who were trusted at one time or another. A woman must base her survival on the facts that all rapist are men, and his victims are women. Charges of man-hating subtly or not so subtly hide the real accusation that any woman who feels like this must be a queer, a lesbian, a dyke. This is queer-baiting. Queer-baiting, at best, is a scare tactic that only exposes the more ignorant elements of mainline liberalism. It suggests that lesbians are the only women with good reason to hate men. It ignores the fact that all women are victims of violence, not just lesbians. I say that it is not unreasonable for a woman to hate men. Man-hating can be the singly most liberating and empowering experience for a woman. To finally, and personally, identify a hatred for a culture -- founded and perpetrated by and for men -- that hates her and everything feminine about her. The greatest tragedy is that [it?] queer-baiting works. It makes us afraid of our own justified anger. Instead, [we] women are asked to find the goodness in our hearts, to tolerate the atrocities of our lives, or we are silenced, denied the facts of our experience. If we do not comply, we are queer-baited and accused of man-hating. I will not justify my anger and hatred of men. It is real and it is reasonable. Violence is the need to maintain power. Violence, specifically directed towards women, is violence by men, in an effort to maintain control and power over women. It is a direct cause and product of the sexist mire in which we