Take Back the Night

This weekend I participated in our little cities second annual Take Back the Night walk. It was fairly cool and threatening to rain (had been raining earlier and then rained after but we had a break in the weather) so it was impressive that over 50 women showed up as well as some men. 

Take Back the Night has been around since the 70s.  The idea is to bring light to the issue of sexual assault against women and children which most often occurs at night- both in the home and in "public" places. Women should not have to live in fear of being assaulted and the conversation around assault needs to stop blaming the victim for where she was, what she wore and what she consumed.

Earlier this week Husband shared this image from Take Back the Night which I love

The thing is, I took part in my first Walk Against Violence Against Women and Children (not that we were for violence against men either though) when I was 15.  I took part in some Take Back the Night walks in my early 20s.  I'm now 31.  We're still walking.  We're still having the same conversations.  We girls still looked at each other and asked where the others had parked to make sure no one had to walk back through some slightly dodgy (and we have  way too many of those) parts of Saint John by themselves.

For our daughters and granddaughters and nieces but also for our sons and grandsons and nephews we need society to get better at portraying healthy relationships and shaping the conversation.  Don't let another generation hear the phrase "legitimate rape".