Watch out for Reclaim the Night…

The Focus – October 27th, 2007 by Sarah

I just thought I would take this opportunity in amongst all this election madness to reflect on an issue that is close to my heart, and that issue is violence against women, and the treatment of women in general. Given that October is the month of the Reclaim the Night marches, what better time to expound upon the topic, while also giving the event a bit of a plug?

Reclaim the Night occurs every October, and is a women only march to emphasise how important it is that women should feel safe enough to walk the streets alone at night. It is also a general protest about men committing acts of violence towards women. Sydney’s Reclaim the Night march was meant to be held last night, but was postponed due to bad weather. An appropriate metaphor perhaps, considering how Australia’s politicians seem to think it’s ok to postpone doing anything particularly radical to address the domestic violence situation in this country. No, a somewhat laughable advertising campaign is not going to fix the problem, but I guess Howard does love spending large amounts of money on mostly useless propaganda rather than on anything that is actually constructive.

No matter what we are told, no matter what we are lead to believe by promotors of women’s sexual freedom and women’s rights in general, not a lot has really changed over the years. Women may have changed their attitudes towards themselves and are now demanding to be treated with more respect, but what about men? Do they consider our need to be taken seriously, our need to be treated as human beings rather than objects, our need to pursue our goals and dreams, as genuinely important? A lot of them do. I won’t dispute that there are a lot of great men out there. But even the attitude of our own government suggests that what matters to women is simply subordinate to what matters to men. Consider the issue of paid maternity leave, the cost of child care, the fact that a Bill to protect women from the bias attitudes of health care professionals when it comes to intimate subjects such as pregnancy and rape has been stuck in some sort of odd limbo situation for months. All of this suggests that it is definitely not time for us to give up the fight, that a lot more can be achieved for women. It just means that we have to ignore the idea that we should be satisfied with how far we’ve come and not expect more.

Ladies, expect more. A lot more. If you’re a Sydneysider, come along to Reclaim the Night when they set a new date, and march for your rights. It may seem a small gesture, but it represents so much. We can’t afford to be complacent, we have to be strong, recognise our own value and fight for it.

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