Well, I'm back in the land of research papers for the next couple of weeks, but before I get too deeply into them, I thought I'd share a couple of thoughts about Reclaim the Night.
Reclaim the Night is an annual march held in London to protest sexual violence against women. These marches are held all over the world -- even in Charleston, I did it last year -- and it's always a great moment of empowerment and collective action. Walking through the main streets of London, past Trafalgar Square, the West End, and thousands of onlookers was such an experience. My voice was completely gone from my lengthy illness, so I couldn't do much more than hold my sign and look determined (and more than a little cold!), but I loved it.
I have a couple of complaints, however. The first is that I honestly thought the march would be much bigger. Granted, our march in Charleston consisted mainly of students from my Gender and Violence class, but even given that relatively humble frame of reference, I was surprised that a march being held in one of the world's major capitals for a cause I consider to be so ubiquitous didn't garner a larger crowd. When we assembled in an auditorium after the march, there were only about as many people as might show up to CofC's production of The Vagina Monologues.
My second beef is not even specifically about the march on Saturday, but is a rather more general observation. Throughout the march our group was at the front of the pack, which meant that I got a great view of the onlookers. This was pretty awesome for the most part; the majority of the people were either cheering us on or taking pictures as though we were a tourist attraction. What pissed me off were the number of men -- and yes, they were all men -- who stood by and heckled us with insults or sexual advances. What these particular men said or did doesn't really matter. I didn't have my feelings hurt, and I'm quite sure not a single woman in the march felt threatened by their displays of pathetic machismo. What is troubling is the general sentiment that their actions represent. Throwing insults at women who are protesting violence against women is a sanction of that violence. It is indicative of the violence that pulses just below the surface, and often in plain view, in our society. I would often like to believe that the reason this violence persists is because of insufficient public education -- that people just don't realize how enormous the problem is. Surely all people, whether men or women, could get behind a cause that seeks to liberate their sisters, mothers, daughters, friends, and selves from the fear and the threat of rape and violence at every turn. I know in that reasonable, realistic part of my brain that this isn't the case. Clearly, my thinking is that of a bleeding-heart liberal who is totally out of touch with just how sick the world really is.
