Take Back the Night Week empowers women through variety of activities

by Megan Kuhn and Liz Shirey
FOR THE POST

Reading Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Woman," Amanda Hobson, Ohio University Student Senate women's affairs commissioner, kicked off the 21st annual Take Back the Night week at a poetry reading Sunday. Events conclude today with Mary Daly's lecture at Irvine Auditorium.

Throughout the week, women and men participated in a variety of activities, all culminating in the spotlight event – the march.

Beauty in the eye of the beholder

Hobson facilitated a discussion among OU students and personnel Monday about the social construction of beauty.

Kellea Tibbs, OU junior and resident director of South Green, said too many people believe the myth that health and beauty are one in the same.

OU Junior Lauren Smith said she thought the two are not always linked. "A large woman doesn't necessarily mean an unhealthy woman," she said.

Some of the women in attendance said they frequently experience contradictory messages about beauty expectations. Smith said these mixed messages are hard to handle, especially when they come from family members.

"When I first started developing, my mom was like, 'What's going on? You used to be skinny,'" Smith said.

Selling stereotypes

Rachel Gaunt, an 18-year advertising veteran, said women are bombarded with thousands of influential messages every day that leave them feeling depressed and confused.

Gaunt's speech, titled "BADvertisement," was co-sponsored by Residence Life and attracted a huge student population, packing Morton Hall Auditorium on Tuesday. She used a colorful mix of humor, ironic rhetorical questions, staggering statistics and magazine and television advertisements to outline certain advertising tactics.

"Ads often portray women as willing, passive, sexual objects, and then we [society] are surprised by things like rape and domestic violence," she said.

Most images are retouched and rarely represent reality or truth; yet, in just 30 seconds the media can invent and reinforce negative stereotypes of women, Gaunt said.

"There are only certain roles women are allowed to play in television and magazine ads – the 'good time' gal; the 'soft, vulnerable sorry-for-taking-up-so-much-space' girl; the 'gosh I can't live without my boyfriend, so I'm drugged up and drunk out of my mind' girl. These images do not tell people who we are as women," she said.

Fighting with fists

S even rapes were reported to either the Ohio University Police Department or the Athens police in 1999, according to the OUPD Web site, (http://www.ohiou.edu/police/rtk/1999/clery99.html). In the same year, 21 rapes were reported to counseling agencies, 19 of which were committed by an acquaintance.

Wednesday's "Violence in Relationships" discussion focused on these and other alarming statistics on violence against women.

Two self-defense classes were also part of the week's activities. Twenty-two women attended the self-defense classes, said Cheryl Cesta, the women's assault prevention instructor.

Some people do not realize that Take Back the Night is about women not tolerating violence, said Mara Siegler, OU sophomore and senate intern for women's affairs commission.

"People look at the march and don't understand; they hear people yelling, but to them it's just noise," she said. "It really opens your eyes to the cause and brings you together with people."