White Ribbon Campaign? - End Violence Against Women

[Boogalou]

Has anyone ever heard of this? My university is participating this week and I thought it was pretty interesting. It is a campaign for men to end violence against women. Men wear a white ribbon as a pledge "to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls." I thought this is a nice change from telling women how to avoid being abused and getting raped. I am sure the fundies wouldn't like it, after all, if you want to avoid violence against women, women just need to be more submissive!

Here is their site: http://www.whiteribbon.ca/about_us/

[browncoatslytherin]

wow that's pretty cool! never heard of this before.

[Alecto]

I hate to be "What about the MENZ?" but I really wish campaigns like this were not just girls, but violence against children.

[DistantStar]

My first thought was that the men who will go with something like this are the ones who wouldn't tolerate such violence to begin with, ribbon or not.

[lilwriter85]

My college did a similar thing with pledges and not ribbons. It was a week long thing in which men on the campus wrote pledges on leaflets and made statements to never women.

[Boogalou]

My first thought was that the men who will go with something like this are the ones who wouldn't tolerate such violence to begin with, ribbon or not.

That is probably true but I think it is nice to have the message out there that men are responsible for their own actions. So while the people making the pledge probably aren't going to be violent anyway, I think it is good that the message is getting out there.

[JesusFightClub]

Yes, we have this in the UK. It's been around for a fair few years now.

It's usually a man speaking to other men on that level "you would never hit a woman yourself, would you?" or "what would you do if you knew a woman was being hit? " This is a helpful thing, IMO. Sometimes when women say it men don't listen.

My friend died at her (male) partner's hands. I still grieve for her every day.

[kunoichi66]

My friend died at her (male) partner's hands. I still grieve for her every day.

I'm so sorry.

[DistantStar]

Crap, I got distracted and meant to come back to edit and forgot -- I think this is a nice enough idea. But I also think all ribbon-related things have an element of preaching to the choir built in. Call me cynical, I won't deny it. Though I'm not cynical about men; in my experience, in my life, they have been generally awesome. Totally not like the fundies at all.

[fakepigtails73]

The white ribbon campaign started a few yrs after the Montreal Polytechique Massacre, when a deranged mysogynyst entered that engineering university (on Dec. 6 1989) and killed 14 women. He targeted only women; since it was clearly an extreme act of violence of a man against women it's the reason why it's not re: violence against children or violence against men (all worthy causes too).

Sometimes I get sick of that white ribbon campaign, but then I think of my friend's cousin who died in that bloodbath and I count my blessings that I'm surrounded by great men.

[bananacat]

I generally don't find pledges to be very effective (teens who take abstinence pledges are actually more likely to end up pregnant or getting someone pregnant), but I definitely like the idea of this anyway. It changes the social narrative and makes violence against women slightly less socially acceptable. I don't think this one campaign will change everything, but it's a step in the right direction. A few victims might feel less ashamed about their own abuse, and a few people who grew up thinking it wasn't really a big deal might think about it more.

[Boogalou]

I generally don't find pledges to be very effective (teens who take abstinence pledges are actually more likely to end up pregnant or getting someone pregnant), but I definitely like the idea of this anyway. It changes the social narrative and makes violence against women slightly less socially acceptable. I don't think this one campaign will change everything, but it's a step in the right direction. A few victims might feel less ashamed about their own abuse, and a few people who grew up thinking it wasn't really a big deal might think about it more.

Yes, this is exactly what I like about it, you just phrased it far better than I could. It stops blaming women (what were you wearing? why were you alone at night? what did you say to him? why were you not submissive enough? why did you marry him? etc.) and puts the responsibility on the people who are responsible (I know women are violent, no need to remind me, it's just targeting the biggest group). Obviously, it won't change everything, nothing ever can, but it is a step in the right direction. I like that it changes the conversation, it is refreshing to see.

[thoughtful]

That is probably true but I think it is nice to have the message out there that men are responsible for their own actions. So while the people making the pledge probably aren't going to be violent anyway, I think it is good that the message is getting out there.

I think the ribbon campaigns sometimes are so ubiquitous they are no longer noticed.

But this one has one extra factor going for it -- since it is often men committing violence against women, the specific incident that inspired this involved a man attacking women, and being rough with women is thought of as "manly" in some circles, I think that men wearing this ribbon makes a bit more of a statement.

Some of the ribbons are against something outside of human behavior (or in support of those facing these things), like cancer.

But this one is in favor of choosing better behavior, and the humans who might perpetrate that behavior standing up to say they will make better choices.

I'd compare it to parents of small children wearing an anti-spanking emblem, or dog owners wearing or displaying an "adopt" or anti-shock-collar symbol.