Taking notice of abuse

Students, professors and survivors gather to "take back the night"

By Morgan Steger
The Collegian

Several hundred people gathered in Fresno State’s Peace Garden Wednesday evening to shed light on the ongoing problem of violence against women. “Take Back the Night,” an annual event put on by the Women’s Resource Center, Women’s Alliance, Associated Students and POWER (People Organized for Women’s Empowerment and Representation), condemned violence against women, offered solutions to the problem and recognized survivors of violence.

The band Hop-Skotch Heroes kicked off the event, providing live music as people circulated through information booths representing organizations such as the Marjaree Mason Center, the Women’s Studies Department and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, which were set up around the Peace Garden.

The event featured several speakers, including faculty members, students and alumnae. Loretta Kensinger, a women’s studies professor and the keynote speaker, addressed those gathered, saying “Take Back the Night” serves to focus attention on the continuing struggle in America to build a society respectful of the rights of all women.

“I come back each year to renew my commitment to battle to end this war,” she said. Kensinger invoked the words of several notable figures in American history, such as Abigail Adams and Frederick Douglass, as she encouraged the crowd to take a stand against violence aimed at women. Kensinger said the battle for women’s rights would lead to freedom for both women and men.

Michelle Colvin, a Fresno State student and president of POWER, took the stage to speak out against Proposition 73, a ballot initiative that, if passed, would require minors in California to inform their parents before obtaining an abortion. Colvin urged the crowd to vote against the proposition, saying “we are standing at ground zero of the feminist revolution.”

Fresno State alumna Maria Sophia presented another issue connected to violence against women, the abduction and murder of more than 400 women in the Mexican border town Cuidad Juarez. Sophia said the Mexican government had done nothing to stop these killings. She said the women, workers in sweatshops run by major corporations, were killed because they were earning money and thus upsetting the power balance between local men and women. She told the crowd they could be part of the solution by refusing to buy products created in Mexican sweatshops.

“I’m not saying you’re the killers, I’m just saying we can be the solution,” Sophia said.

Fresno State senior and mass communication and journalism major Amanda Morris said she had been unaware of the murders in Cuidad Juarez, but after hearing Sophia speak she would now make a concerted effort “to pay more attention” to what she buys.

“Take Back the Night” also addressed violence against members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Shane Moreman, a communications professor at Fresno State, spoke of his experiences growing up gay. He urged listeners to take back the night, saying “we don’t have to accept gender violence of any kind.”

The speakers were followed by a candlelight vigil and moment of silence. Fresno State student Gabriela Rodriguez, a survivor of abuse, provided the closing remarks reminding those gathered “there is nothing shameful in being a victim. Tonight, I say there is no justification for violence or hate,” she said.

Afterward participants were invited to march through campus and along Shaw and Cedar Avenues with candles aloft to symbolically take back the night. The march was followed by an open-mic session in the Pit, where abuse survivors and “Take Back the Night” participants gathered to share their stories.

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