How the White Ribbon Campaign Contributes to Personal and Social Change

First, it promotes personal change, in knowledge, emotion, and behaviour. In participating in the campaign, ideally, men learn about violence against women, they develop greater empathy for victims and awareness of the injustice that violence represents, and they improve their own treatment of women.

One of the ways this occurs is through wearing a white ribbon itself. When men take this simple step, we find ourselves having to explain to others what this ribbon on our shirts means. So we’re thrown into conversations where we’re forced to find a language to articulate our concern about violence against women, the reasons this matters to us, and what the campaign is about.

Participating in the campaign invites men to take simple, positive steps to be part of the solution. Find out about the violence that many women experience. Don’t condone the view that the victim is to blame. And check out how we treat the women around us.

Second, White Ribbon Day enables men as bystanders. It invites men to intervene in violent or violence-supportive behaviour by other men – as family members, friends, classmates, teammates, co-workers, or others. (Check out the Resource Kit for useful ideas on what you can do if you are faced with an incident of violence.)

Enabling men as bystanders helps to create a peer culture in which the abuse of women will be seen as unacceptable. It helps to reinforce norms of nonviolence, and to provide strong disincentives for violence. It makes it more likely that individuals who act in abusive ways will suffer loss of respect, friends, and status, and experience legal and nonlegal sanctions.
Third, White Ribbon Day draws on men’s roles as mentors, role models, and leaders. The campaign invites men to be a good role model, whether they’re a dad, a business leader, a teacher, a priest, or a coach. The campaign invites men to use these roles to set a good example, to shift masculine norms based on tolerance for violence, and to use their leadership to promote nonviolence and sexual respect.

Together, these efforts are intended to undermine the social norms and power inequalities that feed into violence against women, and replaces them with norms of respect and consent and gender roles based on non-violence and equality.

The White Ribbon Campaign complements other strategies of violence prevention: education in schools, services and programs for people at risk of perpetrating violence or being subjected to violence, and more.
In some countries, the White Ribbon Campaign includes such elements itself. So in Canada for example, WR participants have produced curricula which are being used in secondary schools. The Australian campaign includes a ‘social marketing’ component – television, print, and radio advertisements, produced pro bono by Saatchi and Saatchi, which will be placed in media around the country over the next two months. Other, equally important components of the White Ribbon Campaign in Australia include;
• Public presentations by Ambassadors and other supporters;
• Public events launching or supporting the campaign in cities around the country, including large events organised by the National Leadership Group and smaller events organised by community groups, schools, and others;
• The distribution of ribbons themselves, through stalls, shops, etc.;
• Other written materials, including a free postcard being distributed nationally, and the Resource Kit (available from the WR website);
• A website;
• An e-newsletter.

By Micahel Flood 2006

WHITE RIBBON DAY TEAM 

How Embarrassing: Privilege & Prejudice

If we broaden our definition of male violence against women, as something beyond using purely physically force to hurt a woman, we can begin to view it as both a cause and as an effect of unequal power relations between men and women.

We know that a person’s experience of inequality or their access to power or status in society is partially determined by gender. Other significant factors that impact upon our experience of privilege or prejudice include: where we live (rich suburb vs. poor suburb); our place of birth (1st World vs. Developing Country); our class (elite, upper vs. middle/lower class); our age (child/youth/aged vs. adult); our sexuality (homosexual vs. heterosexual); our ethnicity (majority or minority); our ability or disability, our first language, religion, education level and so on.

It is overly simplistic to blame all men for all violence against women, or to suggest that all men are consciously joined in a collective conspiracy to subjugate women. As outlined above there are a large number of complex factors that determine whether someone is privileged or marginalised within society. However, when I consider the factors that predispose a person either to privilege or prejudice, I am reminded of the advantages I have been afforded. Even though I may not feel powerful or privileged, I can see that I have been advantaged as a result of being born male, Australian, of Anglo-Saxon heritage, and English speaking. Even more embarrassing, is the fact that while I may ‘benefit’ from some of these privileges, others, often women, actually experience these as prejudice.

Wearing a white ribbon is about more than not being physically violent towards women, it means opposing the inequalities that privilege some at the expense of others. To seriously oppose violence against women is to promote gender equality, and to support human rights.

WHITE RIBBON DAY TEAM 

How Embarrassing: Violence Against Women

The most recent research indicates that anywhere between 40% (ABS 2006 Personal Safety Survey) and 57% of women (AIC 2004) in Australia have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence. These findings suggest that almost all of us will know a woman who has been affected by male violence.

As if these statistics are not embarrassing enough, remember that these surveys used a narrow definition of violence as being ‘physical’ or ‘sexual’. If we broadened the definition of violence, how many more women would we find are affected by male violence? For example, what if we were to consider the suppression of liberty, or freedom of movement as a form of male violence? How many women think twice about using public transport or walking home in the evening, because of the fear of physical or sexual assault? If we learned that a large number of women do fear male violence when walking or taking a train at night, as men, should we find this embarrassing?

This year, when we wear a white ribbon and pledge to not commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women, let’s reflect upon our own behaviour and beliefs. Let’s work together to make Australia more equal, so that the women in our lives, can get a ‘fair go’.  Are you embarrassed enough to take a stand?

WHITE RIBBON DAY TEAM