Reclaim The Night: What About Men?
- Lily Coleman
- Nov 30, 2017
- 3 min read
On November 26th, I visited the annual Reclaim The Night protest to learn more about the movement that aims to bring an event to sexual violence against women. As it is a women's only event, I was there to question whether they should invite men to join them too.
The nationwide protests originated in 1977 when a group known as the Leeds Revolutionary Feminists called for women to march across the UK to make their voices heard.
This followed the horrific crimes of Peter Sutcliffe who sexually attacked and murdered thirteen women in Yorkshire between 1975-80.
The police response was minimal, only offering women the solution of “staying inside at night” and effectively putting them under a strict curfew.
On the 12th November 1977, hundreds of women went out into the streets to take back their cities, holding flaming torches and demanding that women should be able to walk anywhere and not fear for their lives.
The protests continue today and this year marks the 40th anniversary of their inception. Held on 25th of November, the march bought feminists from across the UK to London to ‘reclaim the night’ and raise awareness for sexual assault and rape against women.
Since its inception 40 years ago, the march has aimed to empower women and bring focus to the issue of sexual violence and rape. Placards from the night were provocative; asking questions like “why do we still need to protest this?” and stating, “When women are oppressed, it’s a tradition”.
According to Rape Crisis, approximately 85,000 women are raped in England and Wales each year alone.
But one fact that is often ignored or underrepresented in the debate regards the male survivors of assault.
Around 12,000 men are raped in England and Wales every year, yet these victims are not included or discussed at the Reclaim the Night marches. In fact, the event only discusses men as attackers and aims to teach them not to rape, with no event for male victims currently being held.
The London march, much like several other of the sister marches across the country, is strictly a female-only protest.
This year, men were only permitted to enter the rally held after the protest and only when they were accompanied with women – such as a partner, family member or friend.
But what about male victims or male sympathisers – why are they not welcome to the event?
By excluding men from events such as these, are we excluding them from the argument altogether?
From speaking to various attendees of the protest – their reasons became clear.
Many of the women there are survivors of sexual violence and their perpetrators are male, and therefore see the march as a safe space away from men. A lot think that because the majority of victims are women, that inviting men distracts from the larger issue of gender-based violence.
The fact that the protests have been led for 40 years also means that they are of historical importance to feminists; therefore they prefer to keep the march for women-only. Some suggest hosting a separate march that is mixed-gender, but this hasn’t been set up yet.
Perhaps one of the greatest misconceptions is the idea that men can only be perpetrators of violence as opposed to victims – and it is something that men and women both need to address together.
That is not necessarily to say that Reclaim the Night is not important because it does bring light to a key issue in society that needs to be addressed; and women are the majority of those affected by sexual violence.
Mark Brooks, of the Men and Boy’s Coalition and the Mankind Initiative, believes that whilst male victims need representation, it doesn’t mean that the march needs to change:
“If there was a similar event held by men, the issue would be whether it would be treated in the same way. As for Reclaim the Night, I don’t think it’d be right for men to say that it shouldn’t happen or they should be invited. It should be about them getting the same representation in a similar way.”
Regardless of whether future Reclaim the Nights open their arms and invite all genders to the protest, or whether a separate mixed march begins, one thing is certain. If 1 in every 10 rape victims is male (RAINN), then it is time for the argument to develop further than just female-based victims of violence.
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