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Click here to read about the international event, “Take Back the Night”

Efforts to raise awareness of sexual violence began on Wednesday at the Women’s Resource Center’s fifth annual “Sac State Women Take Back the Night,” an event dedicated to persuade women and men to take a stand against sexual assault.

Jessica Heskin, advocate and educator for Violence and Sexual Assault Support Services, began the night with a game of “Sexual Assault Jeopardy,” where the audience was asked questions about sexual assault ?” participants who answered correctly were given free T-shirts.

Heskin ?” dressed in a shirt that read “Speak Out” on the front and “Decide to End Sexual Violence,” the slogan for this year’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month, on the back ?” said one in five women will become a victim of sexual assault within her college years.

She said the most important self-defense technique for women to protect themselves against predatory drugs, which she said are used by sexual predators to reach their victim, is to bring a friend who can monitor the situation when going out.

But other self-defense techniques can be exercised in order to decrease the chances of becoming a victim of sexual assault.

Kinesiology professor Midge Marino, who teaches self-defense on campus, demonstrated these alternative techniques to the 18 people who attended the event.

Marino said the preparation to prevent sexual violence happens on three different levels: psychological; awareness and prevention; and physical technique.

Marino asked the audience what came to mind when the term “sexual violence” arose, to which one responded: “a fist-fight.”

But Marino said sexual violence could be experienced in other ways.

“It’s not just physical,” Marino said. Domestic violence starts with verbal abuse and then gets worse, she said. “There is much more to violence than you think,” Marino said.

Marino said society has caused women to believe they can become victims of sexual abuse because women, she said, fear men, for they believe men are stronger and can empower them during an attack.

“When we begin to understand mentally why we are victimized as women, then we can protect ourselves,” Marino said.

By asking them questions, Marino showed the audience how the two sexes react differently when threatened.

The women who attended said they would scream if a man attempted to rape them in the middle of the night ?” the men said they would yell and attack back.

“I want you to see the difference between female and male reaction,” Marino said.

Marino told the women it’s important to not fight against the strength of the attacker. Instead, she said to move with the person and hit the attacker while doing so.

“You have to stay in control. You have to take control of the situation,” she said.

She also suggested confronting the attacker by yelling and demanding for that person to leave because if the victim runs, it will empower the attacker and instill fear in the victim’s mind.

And Marino said most women feel fear when they are threatened ?” her motto and proposal for this is to “turn that fear into anger.”

Women participants said if someone were to attack someone they love, they would kill the attacker.

Marino said that’s how to focus in on the anger.

“If you can do that for someone else, you can do it for yourself,” Marino said.

The university began its rendition of Women Take Back the Night in 2001, Heskin said. Heskin said the international event began in 1976.

Heskin, who sees 40 new clients who have experienced sexual assault and/or intimate partner violence (domestic violence) each year, said victims of sexual assault can seek help at the Women’s Resource Center and the Health Center.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month will continue with “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes,” an event where Sac State men walk one mile in high-heeled shoes to better understand the experiences of women. This event will begin at 11:30 a.m. on April 13 in the Library Quad.

For more information, visit www.csus.edu/wrc or www.csus.edu/hlth, or call 278-4788.

Nika Megino can be reached at [email protected]