Today (November 25) is White Ribbon Day.
White Ribbon Day was created by a handful of Canadian men in 1991 on the second anniversary of one man’s massacre of 14 women in Montreal. They began the White Ribbon campaign to urge men to speak out against violence against women.
Australia’s Loudest Shout is an innovative local idea to engage men in acknowledging White Ribbon Day and its importance.
The idea was to get as many men as possible together at the Blue Lake to shout “No” to violence against women. “Break the silence on violence” was the message.
About 100 blokes turned up. I made a short video of the shout, which recorded 115.8 decibels.
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The one aspect where White Ribbon Day fails is in the advocation that men need to change their sexist attitudes towards women, however, what men really need to do is change attitudes about MASCULINITY and how chivalry, restrictive social constructs and gender essentialism (the products of patriarchy) are damaging to society. It’s highly ironic that some WRD ambassadors are sport stars that come from the bastions of hyper hegemonic masculinity.
It’s men and women who continue to perpetuate such toxic notions that gender imbalance exists and thus, why domestic violence is widespread.