Oh, well, if this thread is any indication, white Ribbon day is a fizzer, and women should concentrate on helping and protecting themselves and leave men to deal with the - much more prevalent - male on male violence. One poster claims this has been solved, and men have sorted it, apparently. Time to tell our police, transit security officers, hospital emergency rooms, school authorities (most principals are male), youth and health workers that all those bashed men and boys they are seeing are either figments of their imagination, self harmers or victims of packs of marauding women. Oh, and I must tell my daughter that what she saw when her male friend was bashed (on a saturday, not at school) must have been a gang of chicks pretending to be boys.
We still glamourise violence by men - watch any western, Bond flick, the Godfather series, any action thriller - the heroes may have good motives but they kill, bash and maim and we cheer them as they do, but they only bash other men, notice. So I return to my point that we see it as acceptable for men to bash other men, and that is wrong too.
Sadly, we are starting to glamourise violence by women too - Kill Bill, Charlie's Angels etc. - because we admire those girls for being as "tough" as men. There is a weird attempt at eroticism in those films, particularly with girl on girl violence.
I stand by my point we have a culture of violence, and while it mostly affects men as both the victims and the perpetrators, women are not immune.

Ena writes, "Oh, well, if this thread is any indication, white Ribbon day is a fizzer..." Well, this thread is *no* indication - it's dominated by a handful of anti-feminist men who are determined to silence and harass any campaign focused on men's violence against women. Whereas out in the real world, large numbers of men (and women) have signed up for the White Ribbon Campaign. They've worn a white ribbon, or they're sympathetic to the campaign, for reasons that I share;
We wear a white ribbon because we care for our wives, our girlfriends, ours sisters, daughters, our female friends, our co-workers. Because we want to support women, and we want girls and women, and men, to be free of violence.
We have heard about the pain and suffering that violence inflicts on women. We know that a fist in the face, a kick in the ribs, being forced into sex, having one’s daily life controlled and policed and tormented, we know that these are horrible things that should never happen.
We wear a white ribbon because, whether we know about it or not, many of the women we know have been subject to men’s violence.
We wear a ribbon because we know that men don’t have to be violent, that men can do better, because we believe that men can be and often are loving, caring, and nonviolent.
Cheers,
michael.

Um ... Floody?

I had decided not to participate further in this thread because it's gone haywire and is no longer really a sensible discussion, but mate I can't let your last post go by.

If White Ribbon Day was such a success, and not such a fizzer, then what the heck was Bronwyn about in her article anyway?

Her statement that "it makes our job harder, not easier, when men who claim to support us ignore our feedback and leave us to do the groundwork on “their” campaign." is another way of saying WRD was a fizzer mate, at least in her eyes.

Better luck next year.

Anthony

Bronwyn's concern was with who did the work organising the campaign, and the fact that women and women's organisations played a substantial role. She writes that instead, men and men's organisations should be doing the bulk of this, given the WRC's focus on men's positive roles in ending men's violence against women. I agree with her.

And this doesn't take away from the facts that;
Men do play a significant role in organising the national campaign, e.g. as at least half of the members of the National Leadership Group, and with a man as Chair;
Over 200 men signed up as Ambassadors for the campaign;
Large numbers of men wore white ribbons on and around the national day.

Best,

michael.

I propose a Rainbow Ribbon Day in lieu of WRD for all of the children who suffer from neglect.

I am opposed to violence against against anyone and regardless of the perpetrator.

However it is a myth that domestic violence is solely or even largely about violence by white Anglo-Saxon men against women.

Overwhelmingly, the highest incidence of domestic violence is against children and that is through child neglect.

White Ribbon Day is about deceit and furthers the cause of those who profit from gender feminism, while at the same time creating fear and distrust, thereby disempowering women and labelling all men as potential abusers.

WRD takes attention and resources away from more pressing needs such as child neglect.

Speak up for the thousands of children suffering from child neglect in this country and wear a Rainbow Ribbon. There is no site dedicated to them!

I would venture that most women and men would support Rainbow Ribbon Day, as would the many voluntary not-for-ptofit groups that heve traditionally shouldered the burden of speaking out for children and youth.

So there would be no need for carping and complaining about who OUGHT to do the work and of course the individuals and organisations so involved in WRD would, as usual, be noticeable by their absence.

I think it was the late Fred Daly who said that in a one horse race you can always bet on self interest.