Take Back the Night
History and Perspective
Take Back the Night by Mark Curtin
Take Back the Night
From the tormentor
Take Back the Night
From the molestor
Take Back the Night
From the rapist
From the harasser
From the red tape
From the cover up
From the silence of complicity
From the ignorance of society
From the institution of denial
From the ones who stole it
Take Back the Night
Some say the first Take Back the Night rally (TBTN) was held in England in the year 1877 and served as an all female protest against the violence and fear that women encountered walking the streets at night. Other historiands feel that the first TBTN was actually held in Germany in 1973 in response to a series of sexual assaults, rapes, and murders of women. The first TBTN held in the United States was in San Francisco, California in 1978. This all woman march took place in the darkness of night as a profound statement of thier resistance to fear and desire to end the violence against them. An estimate three thousand people had gathered to hear feminist theorist and author Andrea Dworkin speak at this gathering. Afterwards the women marched together through the areas that contained pornographic theatres and bookstores, filling the streets, stopping traffic and chanting in protest of sexualized violence.
Sine that time Take Back the Night rallies have been held in Canada, Latin America, India and Europe. Although the type of rally differs from location to location the theme is always the same. We will march until the violence stops, until the perpetrators are held accountable, until the night is as safe as the day and all the streets, schools, churches and homes are safe for every person regardless of their age, gender, race, religion or ethnicity. Most TBTN rallies now include every gender as we have recognized that sexual violence affects us all in different proportions.
This orderly protest of the violence is not directed at any one group, but directed at the individual perpetrators that hide in the dark of night. Our outrage is allowed to vent this one night per year and is aimed only at the abusers, the rapists, the batterers and the hateful. Our discontent for a legal system that allows admitted rapists to go back to class and our dismay at the large number of survivors is not a condemnation of the male gender. Our anger is directed at the perpetrators and those who sit idly by as hate preys on another victim in the night.
Please do not fear us for we are not about you. TBTN is about the survivors of the world and those who have not survived the violence. It is about changing society for our children, for us and for our world.
"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph."
- Haile Selassie