Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” I was silent for a long time about things that mattered, things that should have been spoken about.
It seems we are taught as young children to tell our parents if someone ever hurts us, but somewhere along the way, we become ashamed about the hurt that we put up with, the emotional, physical, mental, sexual abuse and manipulation that is thrust upon us. There is an unspoken agreement between people that arises. Don’t talk about the unpleasant things in life. We don’t want to hear about your pain and suffering, we have our own. If you do, we will make you regret it.
But I am here to break that rule.
I am here to say I will not be silent any longer, that I am no longer afraid of my own voice. Take Back the Night is a public outcry against sexual violence in all of its forms. It is a way for a community to say we will no longer be silent; we will not be shamed into being afraid of the night. We know that it is never someone’s fault if they are assaulted. We know the system that is supposed to help survivors fails them all the time, re-victimizes them, criminalizes them, shames them for their choices, finds their assailants “not responsible.” We know that many are taught that if a person is raped, a woman especially, she must have been asking for it, and if she’s had sex before, she must have really wanted it. She was tempting him, or her, or whomever.
Jessica Valenti put it well when she said, “Women don’t get raped because they were drinking or took drugs. Women do not get raped because they weren’t careful enough. Women get raped because someone raped them.”
We are here to stand up and say that this blaming is wrong. We stand up for all those who were assaulted, were raped. Those who were told it was their fault, those who were told so because they were drinking, because they were wearing revealing clothing, because they were flirting, because they were dating, so it must have been consensual. I stand up and I take back the night because I have been told all of those things about why people are raped. And because of this I never came forward, I never reported it; I never said this has to stop. But I’ll say it now: I am no longer afraid of my own voice; of the truths I have to tell, no matter how painful they are.
My name is Theresa Meinert and I am a survivor of rape. I am stronger than ever; he will never take that away from me. This rape culture has to stop, and you all need to be the ones to stop it.
– Theresa Meinert is a senior in the School of Nursing.