Take Back The Night Research Paper

Steven Sadhwani Extra Credit Response Paper I attended the USF event Take Back the Night on April 14, and it was an eye-opening experience that I was very fortunate to have had exposure to. The event consisted of a silent march, a speak-out for survivors, and a candlelight vigil, all to raise awareness for sexual violence. Take Back the Night gave victims (survivors) of sexual violence the chance to share their stories to help them gain back their strength and support from the audience. I have never participated in an event with the level of emotion like Take Back the Night, and I believe it has drastically changed my perspective on everything, whether it be the people in my lives or the environment I am in. I was also able to apply what I’ve learned in Human Sexual Behavior to expand my critical thinking when participating in the event. There were many instances while partaking in Take Back the Night, where I used the principles I was taught in class to better understand the situation that was going on; for example, I did not have a stance in the abortion debate before taking Human Sexual Behavior. I learned the arguments for both pro-choice and pro-life

Seeing and listening to the speakers talk about the painful experiences that they’ve been through made my perspective change completely. Before this event, I did not know anyone who has been a victim of sexual violence (unless they haven’t spoken up). I had no idea how common sexual violence was in this world, especially at universities. I also did not know how hard it was for victims to come to terms with their situation and speak about it. I truly believe that this new perspective I now have will change the way I view people, and stop me from being judgmental. Given all of the knowledge I’ve gained, I will uphold the promise we all made in the beginning of the ceremony to become an active bystander and take a stand against sexual