Dear Jeff Pike,
The next time you decide to write an angry Wespeak about a campus event, you might want to do more research than merely reading posters and citing past events, operating under the assumption that nothing has changed at Wesleyan since you’ve left.
In your Wespeak about Take Back the Night, you claimed that, “the focus of this well-intentioned program every year has been largely on acts of sexual abuse committed by men on women.” That is false. This year, TBTN incorporated significant changes into its structure, overturning decade-long traditions in order to address the fact that men, too, are victims of sexual violence (see my Wespeak in the September 22nd issue). Although no one came to the Male Preforum, possibly because it was the first year, that space was created with the concerns you mentioned in mind. I hope that next year it will be attended by men—survivors and allies—who wish to talk about how the issue affects that specific community. Secondly, women had always led the march through campus in the past; now everyone walks together. And most significantly, the tradition of the all-female speak-out circle was made all-inclusive this year so that every survivor of sexual assault would have an equal chance to speak.
These changes were made in response to feedback from male students last year—feedback we thought was valid and important. Drastically more women than men are sexual assault survivors, but it seems more important to be inclusive than to be symbolic. Also, you are a hundred percent correct that it can be harder for male survivors to disclose their experiences, which is another reason we wanted all spaces to be as safe and open as possible. You might be interested to know that Wesleyan is actually taking substantial strides on this issue, as most other TBTN events around the country are exclusively for and about women. So not only are you wrong about our event, but you’re really wrong.
Your letter succeeded only in spreading false information based on incorrect assumptions.
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