As a collective, we have decided on this year's TBTN theme to be "Justice and Advocacy."When brought up to others, what is Justice to them? Most often justice is the idea of criminal justice. But, Justice can mean much more than that. For each survivor, for each supporter, for each ally, justice has a different meaning. Justice does include criminal justice, but it doesn't just stop there. Justice is self-defined and continuously changing and developing. At our last collective meeting, we brought up what Justice means to collective members, illustrating the diversity and variety in responses. Here are a few of their responses: Justice is receiving support from family, from friends, from peers, from the community. Justice is that others will believe their story and stop questioning its validity. Justice is giving support as family, friend, peer, or community member. Justice is transformative. Justice is restorative. Justice is awareness. Justice is accepting. Justice is helping. Justice is action. But what exactly is "Justice?" Hello everyone, my name is Melissa and I’m an intern with the Take Back the Night Collective. We decided it would be a great opportunity to create a blog about the work we are all so passionate about doing. I will be writing blog posts about a variety and range of topics related to Sexual Assault, Rape, Violence against Women, Feminism, and the Take Back the Night Event. We are always open to suggestions and topics, so drop us an email at [email protected] if you have any! Today I wanted to talk about what it is like and what it means to work in the area of advocacy for survivors of sexual assault and rape. When I tell friends and acquaintances where I work, their reactions are almost always predictable. Usually they look uncomfortable, mumble about what a difficult work that must be or something equally indecipherable, and immediately move on and change the subject. They don’t ask questions, ask how I like it, or what I do there, almost as if they don’t want to know, because asking would be too challenging. People often want to avoid talking about these issues because they are very difficult to talk about. Not only do these issues question personal and familiar norms, but they also question and challenge societal norms. Many associate rape and sexual assault with situations that they think are far from their everyday life. They think rape only happens to women wearing provocative clothing, coming home from the bars late at night, violently seized by a crazy and armed stranger. Yes, this does occur, but the majority of rapes and sexual assaults are in fact very close to home. Every 2 minutes another person is sexually assaulted amounting to 237, 869 people per year*. Most rapes occur right in the home with someone the victim knows, be it husband, boyfriend, relative, friend, neighbor, classmate, colleague, the list goes on. These victims and/or survivors are mothers, daughters, grandmothers, cousins, aunts, babysitters, colleagues, classmates. So you tell me, if these issues are affecting those most important to us, why are we staying quiet? Why are we not challenging and questioning? Why are we not all involved in advocacy for survivors of sexual assault and rape? *Resources: http://www.rainn.org/statistics |
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