2018 White Ribbon Campaign

This year’s Respectful Relationships campaign in November will build on the recently heightened awareness of women’s experiences of men’s abuse such as sexual harassment.

The White Ribbon Trust commissioned a report to help align White Ribbon with the #MeToo movement and develop an appropriate response. You can read the report here.

The report outlined a number of recommendations and these have been accepted by the White Ribbon Advisory Committee and by the White Ribbon Campaign Trust that is responsible for White Ribbon in New Zealand. The report’s author and White Ribbon’s researcher, Garth Baker, says “Now’s the time for men to stand up and be counted. We know some men are uncertain how to act, so we are making it easy by providing that information in our online toolboxes.”

“This November, men can take the White Ribbon Pledge ‘to stand up, speak out and act to prevent violence towards women’.

To make The Pledge more action oriented, White Ribbon will be highlighting a range of actions men can take to demonstrate their commitment.

If you want to be involved in the campaign please get in contact with us here.

Recommendations that will help shape the 2018 White Ribbon Campaign

1. White Ribbon develops the website where individuals can take The Pledge by offering them an option to commit to enacting their pledge by taking specific actions within an agreed timeframe. This emulates what White Ribbon Canada has done.
2. White Ribbon includes the three key #MeToo actions into the list of options for men to enact the White Ribbon Pledge.
3. White Ribbon promotes and prioritises the #MeToo three key actions in campaign media and communication.
4. White Ribbon strengthens its current gender transformative approach by:
   1. promoting actions men can take to enact The Pledge which promote gender equity, being more flexible in gender behaviour or talking with young men about ‘breaking out of the man box’.
   2. Highlighting these actions in other campaign media and communication.
   3. Incorporating a suitable gender transformation message into the campaign’s key messages (in level one communication).
   4. Developing a short toolbox for men on how to positively respond to #MeToo with information on how to enact the three key actions and to break out of the ‘Man Box’.
   5. Developing a new toolbox to support men ‘Breaking Out of the Man Box’ and becoming more equitable and flexible in their gender behaviour.
   6. Reviewing the content of existing toolboxes to ensure they overtly promote men breaking out of the man box to be more equitable and flexible.
   7. Developing a range of information that can be used to build understanding of the links between a man’s use of violence against women, his socialisation, male social norms, and gender inequality at a structural level. This would include an explanation of the terms ‘rape culture’ and ‘toxic masculinity’ and promoting support for gender equity and flexible gender behaviour (key to the respectful behaviour White Ribbon promotes).
   8. Promoting this information to men in the 2018 campaign media and communication.
5. White Ribbon promotes the key action of men listening and believing women when they talk of their experience of harassment or assault, or other negative behaviour by men by:
   1. Promoting ‘listening and believing’ women as a campaign key message in 2018 and promote this action in other campaign media and communication.
   2. Adding new content to the ‘Respectful Relationships’, ‘Respectful Sexual Relationships’ and ‘Start With Respect’ toolboxes that strengthens men’s listening and believing behaviour by giving clearer directions, including avoiding inappropriate responses.
   3. Including content in the new ‘Breaking Out of the Man Box’ toolbox that specifically supports men listening and believing women, as part of having respectful non-sexual relationships with women and girls.
6. White Ribbon promotes men critically reflecting on their past behaviour towards women, apologising when possible, and actively committing to respectful behaviour in future by:
   1. Promoting ‘self-reflection and changing’ as an action for men in campaign media and communication.
   2. Adding new content to all toolboxes that promotes men reflecting on their behaviour and changing to using respectful behaviour in future. This will include being accountable by taking public responsibility for past behaviour and for making changes and seeking and responding to other’s feedback.
7. White Ribbon strengthens its current approach of supporting men to disrupt other men’s behaviour by:
   1. Testing the effectiveness of the ‘Men Influencing Other Men’ toolbox with a group of men and revising it to ensure it is as effective as possible.
   2. Promoting this toolbox and its use to men in campaign media and communication.
8. White Ribbon does not include a reference to #MeToo in its headline key messages, rather referencing it in second level information and media as the new environment that White Ribbon, and men, need to respond to.
9. To develop a broader understanding and abhorrence of ‘rape culture’ by referencing and defining this term when publicly discussing the social or cultural dynamics associated with men’s sexual violence and to promote actions men can take to prevent sexual violence.
10. To develop a broader understanding and abhorrence of ‘toxic masculinity’ by referencing and defining this term when: identifying that masculinity is a social construct and is changeable; highlighting gender inequalities or the ‘harmful effects of male behaviour on women and girls; focusing on men’s behaviour, identities and relationships; acknowledging the full diversity of masculinity identities; promoting respectful masculinity behaviour (by presenting ‘respect’ as a human quality); and not discounting male privilege.
11. In campaign media and communication to specifically name the problem as men’s violence against women, and to continually develop wider awareness that men are responsible for violence and for preventing it.