{"id":158,"date":"2014-11-04T00:49:53","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T00:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=158"},"modified":"2014-11-04T01:01:26","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T01:01:26","slug":"finding-a-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/finding-a-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding a Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY JENNIFER HALLEY\r\nCAMPUS LIFE EDITOR<\/pre>\n
Every nine seconds in the U.S., a woman is abused by her partner; one in three women worldwide are involved in domestic violence relationships; and every year, nearly 1600 women were murdered by their intimate partners.<\/p>\n
Sexual and domestic violence does not just happen to women, though; this affects men, too.<\/p>\n
Take Back the Night, an event organized by Abby\u2019s House, gave voice to survivors of sexual and domestic violence on Wednesday night in the Werner Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2013, in Oregon, there were 34 domestic
\nviolence fatalities. That\u2019s a huge number of
\npeople for one state; imagine the global effect.\u201d
\nDEBORAH THOMPSON
\nDIRECTOR OF SABLE HOUSE<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Every October, in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, survivors come forth and tell their story in a safe place, as well as raise awareness throughout campus.<\/p>\n
Jenna Beresheim, a senior who was at the event, said that sexual assault is a problem on campus \u201cbut one that is swept under the rug by victims who blame themselves or feel ashamed and embarrassed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a hot topic right now in schools,\u201d Beresheim added.<\/p>\n
Deborah Thompson, executive director of Sable House \u2013 a resource center for victims of domestic and sexual assault \u2013 gave an educational speech about \u201cviolence against humanity\u201d and how sexual and domestic violence is an epidemic that is spreading globally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2013, in Oregon, there were 34 domestic violence fatalities,\u201d Thompson said. She paused briefly, and then added: \u201cThat\u2019s a huge number of people for one state; imagine the global effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the speech, the room went quiet for 30 minutes while a gong was hit every nine seconds to represent each time a woman was abused by her partner.<\/p>\n
During this silence, audience members were encouraged to speak up about their personal experiences.<\/p>\n
While they spoke, the room became heavy with emotion as people cried. Abby\u2019s House advocates offered tissues and hand-squeezes.<\/p>\n
As time went on, more people spoke up as the gong went off in the background. More tears were shed and more voices were heard.<\/p>\n
The lack of men at the event was noticed, specifically by the men themselves that had participated in the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is vital for men to be a part of this issue,\u201d Cody Bindrim, one of the men, who came to Take Back the Night, said. Bindrim is a sophomore at Oregon State University, but came to support his friend and be a part of this cause.<\/p>\n
Gage Barnhurstd also came as a supporter of the event. As a man, he also believes he should take responsibility for sexual violence towards women.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me embarrassed,\u201d he said of being associated with the perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence. Barnhurstd added that a man\u2019s basic instinct is to protect a woman. So \u201cif you have a drive
\nto protect, why not use it?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Take Back the Night ended with a candlelit walk around campus to remember those affected by sexual and domestic violence, and to take a stance against it.<\/p>\n
Students also carried a mattress around in honor of sexual assault victim Emma Sulkowicz, a student at Columbia who felt as though her university\u2019s response of doing nothing to penalize her perpetrator was wrong. Sulkowicz vowed to carry that mattress to each class until her attacker was expelled.<\/p>\n
Throughout the candlelit walk, students chanted statements such as \u201cYes means yes, no means no,\u201d and \u201cwe are women, we are men, together we fight to take back the night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Event offers support, awareness, reflection on sexual and domestic violence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}