Michael Flood
If you of all people believe that the White Ribbon Day campaign ads are deeply problematic, then those campaign ads may very well be deeply problematic.

You won the award from the Men’s Rights Agency for maligning males in 2005. Incidentally the winners for 2006 were Germaine Greer for her inappropriate and maligning comments regards Steve Irwin, and Peter Costello for his maligning comments that men spend too much time in the pub, when in reality Australian men are working very long hours to pay off mortgages, pay for their children’s education and pay off the trade deficit, and much of that can be attributed to government decisions made in the past. So as a past recipient of the award for maligning males, you are in good company.

You could tell the WRC that there is at least one man who isn’t going to be wearing a white ribbon on White Ribbon Day, now or at any time in the future.

Instead that man will be wearing a T-shirt with the following:-
I do not support domestic violence.
I do not support feminists who run totally gender-biased organisations such as WESNET.
I do not support feminists who use bogus domestic violence statistics.
I do not support feminists who try to suggest that all men carry out all domestic violence.
I do not support feminists who try to encourage men to commit self-harm, amputate their arms, crawl through broken glass, or throw themselves under a bus.
I do not support the feminists behind White Ribbon Day.

But the White Ribbon Day campaign does highlight the violence of feminism, although the violence of feminism is normally associated with male discrimination, and many of the comments made by the author in this article and other articles she has written about the male gender are blatant discrimination of the male gender.

The author could be a future nominee for the award for maligning males, but she does face considerable competition from other academics in Australian Universities.

HRS, thanks for your comments. I'm critical of the WR ads because they don't emphasise the key focus of the campaign, men's *positive roles* in helping to end men's violence against women - a role I hope you would support.

As I wrote in the Resource Kit for the campaign;

"Men have a crucial role to play in stopping rape and violence .
Most men do not commit violence against women. Most men know that rape and sexual assault are wrong. But we have done little to reduce physical and sexual assault in our lives, families and communities."

"There is much that men can do to help stop rape, domestic violence, and other forms of violence. Violence against women will only stop when men join with women to put an end to it. And both men and women will benefit from a world free of violence.

[...] The good news is that most boys and men are not violent. Many men have loving and respectful relations with women. And most men share the belief that physical or sexual violence against women is never acceptable. But violence-supportive attitudes and inequalities are still common and some men do act on them.

Males too are often the victims of violence. While boys and men are the large majority of perpetrators of violence, boys and men often are also the victims. Males are bashed up, bullied and sexually assaulted. Boys and men are most at risk of violence from other boys and men.

Ending violence to girls and women and ending violence to boys and men are part of the same struggle — to create a world based on equality, justice and non-violence.

Men will benefit
In campaigning against violence done to women, it is important to remind ourselves of what we are standing for: we want friendships and relationships which are fair, empowering and peaceful; we want sexual lives based on consent, safety, and mutual pleasure; and we want girls and women to grow up free from the threat of violence."

Floody wrote,

"we want sexual lives based on consent, safety, and mutual pleasure;"

I agree with that.

"and we want girls and women to grow up free from the threat of violence."

I also want boys and men to free from the threat of violence, not just women.

"Ending violence to girls and women and ending violence to boys and men are part of the same struggle — to create a world based on equality, justice and non-violence."

Yes it is part of the same struggle. so why approach it in a piecemeal fashion?

"But violence-supportive attitudes and inequalities are still common and some men do act on them."

I hear day in and day out the violent supportive attitudes of women. Some even seem to be proud that their husbands are scared of them.

"he makes me so mad!", "he makes me so angry" "I wanted to hit him" etc etc

Simply claiming that only men need to change their attitudes and the violence will end, is not going to work unless both genders are prepared to challange their beliefs and attitudes towards the other

Did the Townsville signatories to this article read the front page story of the Townsville Bulletin of Monday. The head line reads "Police investigating spate of assaults: Girl Gang Crime Wave". Apparently girls are going around beating up on other girls.

It is a pity that the resources of mental thought are not looking at violence as an issue, instead of gendering it. Being a female does not grant the right to enact violence.

Was it this year or last year that 2 young girls/women beat a cabby to death and then gloated about it?

Michael Flood
Congratulations. Perhaps being placed in a line with Germaine Greer and Peter Costello has done you some good.

You have now said the words “some men”, but it is very rare that a feminist will use the words “some men”, and much more common that a feminist will use the words “men”, thereby classifying all men as one and the same.

The author does this at the end of the article:- “Until all men involved with initiatives such as WRD are truly prepared to “walk” their talk - as Col did, for example - men will, literally, keep getting away with murder.”

So by her choice of wording, men in general are now classified as being murderers. This is blatant discrimination of the male gender, and it would be the same if the author had written “Jews will, literally, keep getting away with murder.”, or “blacks will, literally, keep getting away with murder.”

Many feminists can’t see their own discrimination for their own bigotry.

Frankly I don’t know why Universities in this country have anti-discrimination policies, when those policies are so readily disregarded by their own staff. Or perhaps those policies are only disregarded when it comes to male discrimination

Adam Jones, one of the initial founders of WRD and the Executive Director of Gendercide Watch, has long ago disassociated himself from the campaign as a result of it being exploited for political gain:

http://www.philo5.com/Feminisme-Masculisme/991206%20Why%20I%20Won't%20Wear%20A%20White%20Ribbon.htm

"The claim that all men must share responsibility for the violence some men do to some women has become a veritable mantra over the last several years. Almost no-one has bothered to examine its foundations, or criticize the hypocrisy of its exponents."

The hypocrisy in this statement is that the people that are attempting to shame men for not meeting a standard of behaviour have never attempted or communicated willingness to meet anything close to the same standard of behaviour themselves.

With the knowledge that women are violent towards men, are *they* willing to take responsibility for other women who are violent, even if they are not themselves?

That idea is so laughable it is ridiculous. It is clear to men that participation in something like WRD is a "no good deed goes unpunished" deal where the "focus" will remain solely on men as perpetrators indefinitely.

If men "see red" that women will not take responsibility, what's the reaction? "You are prone to anger like an abuser!". Inspiring.

Recently, in the US, a woman called in to the radio show of a men's issues advocate, Tom Leykis. She confessed that she had murdered her husband and got away with it by claiming battered wife syndrome. She was there to brag that there was nothing he could do about it. She was identified:

http://www.blowmeuptom.com/archive.tl?h=57

When a men's rights advocate, that is hated by feminists, and labelled a misogynist is solving MURDERS, we have to examine the implications to justice of feminist insistence on a one-sided focus on the issue.

The truth is, when men are going to jail, having their human rights violated and even being killed as a result of widespread ignorance of one side of the problem's responsibility, men now have a greater responsibility to protect their fellow *men* from covered up violence and harassment from feminists.