A Harvard Writer on Duke
Posted on April 18th, 2007 in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
In the Crimson, Lucy Caldwell writes about the “sensationalizing” of sexual violence in the Duke rape case and elsewhere.
So many facets of society have become so hypersensitive to such matters that we seem to be losing our ability to discern between legitimate issues of sexual violence and overblown or exaggerated circumstances… Weâd do well to keep that in mind at Harvard this week, as the annual Take Back the Night events kick off. Take Back the Night, which began in the seventies, consists of candlelight vigils, rallies, and informational events aimed at promoting awareness of sexual crimes. This all sounds fine enoughâpreventing sexual violence is a laudable goal. The trouble is that much of the dialogue of events such as Take Back the Night ignores the fact that in many cases, preventing sexual violence hinges on sexual responsibility.
Hoo, boy. Prepare to get flamed, Lucy. (Not by meâI give you credit for guts, though I think your column lets men off the hook too easily.)
Now, this is an interesting idea:
As for Take Back the Night at Harvard, I suggest that at their closing candlelight vigil, they light a candle for the other victims of sexual violence politicsâthe ones who find themselves unfairly accused of serious sexual misjudgment. To acknowledge those victimsânow that would be seizing the night.
There’s about as much chance of that happening as there is of Al Sharpton apologizing for his role in the Tawana Brawley fiasco….
One Response
4/18/2007 10:36 am
This position is a distraction from the point of Take Back the Night.
It’s a worthy distraction if and only if people are wicked-thoughtful about it. I recommend a CLOSE reading of Harry Lewis’s chapter on the subject. A superficial reading will just piss you off (if you disagree with Lucy Caldwell, as I do, that TBTN should include “other victims” of — something), or it will only flatter your knee-jerk counterintuition (cf. Lucy Caldwell).
But the chapter read carefully is quite good and should neither provoke (in the bad sense) nor flatter.
Standing Eagle