Why are the boys in the back?

"Take Back the Night," an annual event, serves to raise awareness and provide a large public venue for those who oppose violence against women. It offers a forum to share ideas, learn and be among other activists and survivors. This year the event saw more than 200 students and community members unite to take a stand. The night included a vigil, speeches and ultimately a march to raise awareness. By all accounts, it was an overwhelming success and will hopefully lead to some important changes on campus and in Bloomington.\nBut where were the boys? \nIn the back, apparently where they belong. \nCall us crazy, but doesn't that seem a little backward? We understand the symbolism of the men literally "standing behind" the women, but the larger, more looming symbolism was that men are passive entities in helping stop violence against women. Men will be supportive, but women will have to fight it on their own. By being moved to the back of the crowd, the men were implicitly silenced.\nPerhaps the event should have strictly involved women. Having a safe, single-gender space where victims of violence and those women who support them could talk, share and discuss the current environment of violence would have made sense. On the other hand, having a co-gendered march where men and women walk together, side by side, to show support to victims and take a stance against violence would also have made sense.\nBut the way this march was handled didn't make sense. Either make it women only or make it fully integrated. Specifying that both men and women could participate, but that the men had to walk behind, simply underscores the kind of "separate but equal" mentality that leads to misunderstanding. Can you imagine a civil rights march that relegates one race to the periphery, or a march for religious tolerance that demands that one religion stay out of the way and simply "support" tolerance? It's almost laughable, isn't it? The 30 men who turned out to march were those already supportive of the cause, and nothing was accomplished by keeping them in the back. \nIn Tuesday's Indiana Daily Student, sophomore Michael Raunick said, "It's important to show our support and help prevent (domestic violence). Also we need to show men are part of the solution and not the problem." ("Marching into the Night," Oct. 11) \nRaunick makes an excellent point, and it's the same point we're trying to make. Men are part of the solution, and we commend the men who came to the march. But if the men are relegated to the back of the pack and implicitly silenced, can they really help? Ending violence against women is going to take community-wide support from both men and women, working together.