The first campaign I find very effective is the “Where Do You Stand?” campaign by Men Can Stop Rape, an organization that seeks to end the culture of violence, specifically violence against women. I think this campaign is very effective because it shifts the responsibility of prevention away from women: instead of showing prevention and self-defense techniques women can use, the “Where Do You Stand?” campaign demonstrates ways that men can stop the assault or harassment of women. I think that the strength of this campaign is that it provides concrete examples of what men can do or say to prevent sexual violence. Moreover, the advertisements mention specific names (e.g., Nicole, Chris, Kate, etc.) which makes them more real: the advertisements do not appear generic, they appear personal. 

Another campaign I find effective is the “It’s On Us” campaign created by Barack Obama to prevent sexual violence against both women and men on college campuses. The goal of this campaign is to encourage people to stand up and intervene when they witness sexual violence or potential sexual violence. I think that this campaign is effective, especially in college campuses, because many of the public service announcements issued by this campaign are narrated by celebrity spokespeople whom many students look up to. In addition, the videos that are not narrated by celebrities are still relatable to students because of their format, such as the text-message video.

The third effective campaign I found is the Salvation Army’s 2015 campaign against domestic violence in South Africa. The advertisement is based on “The Dress,” a viral Internet debate about the colors of a dress in a particular photograph: people were debating whether the dress in question was gold and white, or black and blue. The Salvation Army’s advertisement is effective because it uses an element of popular culture that, at the time, was highly debated to convey its message. Another effective element is the use of a shocking image: the model in the advertisement is highly bruised and beaten, which does not go unnoticed. Even though this campaign addresses domestic violence instead of sexual violence, I think that the ideas behind it successfully convey the message and are applicable to future sexual assault campaigns.

In Aboriginal societies, there is a high degree of variation in gender relations across groups. More precisely, men and women in term of roles were more similar and equal. For instance, Iroquois were both matrilineal and matrilocal. Matrilineal was traced through the female line of the wife while matrilocal is focused on the husband that lives with the family of the wife and contributes to that household with his hunting.

Aboriginal communities are really more open-minded than others culture these days. They had more inclusive sex-gender systems that also is known today as two-spirit. Two-spirit is a modern pan-endian term used by some indigenous to describe certain people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender ceremonial role in their cultures and these people might marry of have sexual relationships with people of either sex. 

While Aboriginals were really open to this idea of variation in gender relations in New France, it was quite different. For example, in the Catholic Church the role of men and women in families were really distinct and precise. They would focused on the fact that the husband, more precisely the father of the family was the firm of the family and the subordinate of the wife which meant that the wife and the children had to listen to him because he was the leader. So, they had to obey to him in all worldly matters. I personally think that the way of thinking that the Aboriginals have are more similar to the ones in Canada. Canada is really open minded about same-sex mariage and same-sex families. As a country, they think that there is no specific roles given to a specific gender. In other words ,women can do what a men can do and men can do what women can do as well which is why our country is more similar to the Aboriginals when it comes to gender roles.

Jessica Eisenbacher

It’s On Us is a national movement to end sexual assault. Launched in 2014, the campaign was created because the creators of this movement realized the importance and significance of speaking up and including everyone in conversations to end sexual violence, after the White House Task Force to Prevent Sexual Assault talked about it. This campaign is so appealing because they use different techniques to get the conversation going and in two years, 300 000 people took the It’s On Us pledge to stand up against sexual violence. You don’t hear conversations or things on the news every day that raise awareness against sexual assault, and this campaign is so effective and appealing because they’ve managed to engage so many people in the conversation against sexual violence in such little time. 

Launched in 2013, NO MORE is a campaign against domestic violence and sexual assault by raising awareness, taking action, and making change. They work with people from diverse communities and work to end and prevent domestic violence and sexual assault, in homes, schools, at work, and in communities all around the world by creating unique campaigns, partnerships, and tools to grip the power of the entertainment industry. It only took NO MORE a few years to become the largest and most successful campaign on domestic violence and sexual assault in history. Their public service announcements have gotten more than 4.4 billion impressions. NO MORE is also well known for their blue symbol, symbolizing support from all around the world to end domestic violence and sexual assault. The symbol’s circle came from the concept of zero cases of domestic violence and sexual assault. This campaign is really affective and appealing because they stand out and have done a lot over the years in order to raise awareness for domestic violence and sexual assault. They’ve managed to become the most successful campaign out there, and their symbol really stands out and shows the support of everyone who has it. They have set values and their work compromises of many public service announcements and pledges in four different pillars. They’ve collaborated and have gotten together with people in order to come together as one to end domestic violence and sexual assault. 

Kelly Graham-Wieferig

For international women’s week, Sophie Labelle, a transgender cartoonist came to Vanier college. Sophie presented her comics which feature transgender characters. She had a very easy-going presentation and just talked to all of us watching as if she was just talking to her friends. She did not prepare a big presentation but it was still very interesting. A big message that she was trying to convey is that being different from the norm is okay! Sophie wants people to know that they’re not alone and that whoever they are is okay and no one should be ashamed or get shamed for who they are. Sophie has obviously been mistreated for being a trans person and she should not get mistreated by anyone. People had problems with her being transgender like doctors. 

 People get killed all the time for being transgender, and it really is horrible. It is also really sad. Transgender people seriously go through so much in their lives and sometimes people do not get that. Sophie had even mentioned that her mom still thinks that it is a phase. Her comics are very well done and really send a good message. Many people get very upset by her comics and also the fact that the characters are young teenagers, also bothers many people. It is really sad, children are basically only allowed to know their sexuality and gender if they are straight. Otherwise, children are just going through phases.

I really liked Sophie’s presentation. I think to make it better it would be beneficial for her to make it a little bit more professional and it would be much better if she had a presentation to look at as well. Other than that, I really enjoyed her presentation. It made a lot of people think a lot deeper about the LGBTQ+ community and I would definitely recommend her presentations to my friends!

On March 4th, 2019, Sophie Labelle, who is a transgender cartoonist came to present at Vanier about her comics. She wants to send a message with her drawing comics. She wasn’t really doing it as a presentation, I knew it was going to be interesting because she didn’t prepare it in advance she was talking to us like a conversation. She wants people from diverse gender to know that they are not alone and their are other people like them to. She said that it is unfair that people assign genders at birth and that we should have a choice.

To me, her presentation was a success. She talked about of transgender people we’re categorize as abnormal and it even goes to an extreme that some we’re killed. This really shocked me, I felt really bad to hear this and I wasn’t thinking about all the problems transgender people dealt with. For me everyone is equal but I didn’t know it had this much impact and her presentation got to me. She also draws her comics to make people realize that they are not alone. Furthermore that their are social groups like LGBTQ for them if they ever need to talk. Her drawings attract the audience well because they are funny and not to long.

A lot of student liked the presentation I didn’t hear any negative comments. They support the movement that Sophie Labelle is empowering. They also didn’t realize about all the struggle Transgender people went through and they wanna help. They also really liked Sophie’s comics. She was a great speaker and we need more people like her.

The main message from Sophie Labelle presentation was that society should stop treating transgender people differently. Everyone deserves to be treated equally with empathy. She also described how she was treated differently at school and by her doctors. This made me feel really bad for her and it is unfair how people are being treated badly for being who they wanna be.

I would love to recommend this presentation to my friends because it is so inspirational and they should know more about how unequal other people are being treated especially for being transgender. That being said I would not recommend this presentation for people who judge quickly and who are not open to other people point of view.

A campaign was launched in September 2016 regarding marital rape in Lebanon. This campaign was titled “A White Dress Doesn’t Cover the Rape,” and aimed to abolish article 522 of the Lebanese Penal Code; this article was used to exempt men who faced penalties of five years or more from charges regarding sexual assault if a valid marriage certificate could be provided. I believe this campaign to be of extreme importance because it was revealed that only 1% of the population was aware of this article, which is an extreme threat to women because they did not even know that marital rape was technically acceptable under the law. This campaign mobilized the Lebanese population, and by June 2017, the Lebanese Parliament had repealed article 522. One of the main ways they communicated this campaign was by hanging 31 white dresses between palm trees on the Corniche of Beirut; each white dress was used to represent a day of the month in which a woman may marry her rapist, which would be a life-long sentence to rape.

This campaign proved to be effective as it resulted in a change in the law, and I believe it to be appealing as it was carried out in a Middle Eastern country, which is a region in the world in which gender equality continues to be an issue. The fact that the campaign succeeded is impressive and demonstrates how all Middle Eastern countries should take on campaigns such as these because their laws often reflect indifference towards sexual violence, particularly against women.

More details about this campaign could be read about in the following link: https://shortyawards.com/3rd-socialgood/a-white-dress-doesnt-cover-the-rape-undress522

A second campaign which I find to be effective is Edmonton’s “Don’t be that Guy” campaign against sexual assault, which was launched in 2009. This campaign is responsible for the creation of many posters which target men in an attempt to deter them from committing acts of sexual violence against women. This campaign has been effective, as crimes related to sexual violence decreased by 10% in Vancouver by the year 2011. In 2016, Ottawa joined this campaign and collaborated with Edmonton to make it bigger.

I believe that this campaign is particularly appealing as its primary targets are men; we usually tend to try and teach women how to avoid rape instead of teaching men that rape or sexual violence is unacceptable, and this is one of the reasons why this campaign stands out. It uses real statistics which demonstrate that men are the primary perpetrators of sexual violence, with 97% of acts which are sexually violent being committed by them. The goal is to teach men about consent and bring into their awareness what could be considered sexual violence because some men are simply not aware that their actions could be harmful. This campaign incorporates men in the solution of sexual violence.

The following websites contain more information about the “Don’t be that Guy” campaign: http://www.savcalgary.ca/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/dont-be-that-guy-ad-campaign-cuts-vancouver-sex-assaults-by-10-per-cent-in-2011/article1359241/

Mathilde Caille

On the 4th of March 2019, David Garzon represented White Ribbon, an organization created after the Polytechnique massacre to educate men against gender-based violence. During the conference, David shared his personal experience with domestic violence, stating that his own family such as his mother and his grandmother experienced violence from their husbands at the time. This made the conference seem more personal and therefore more interesting. David’s goal was to bring awareness to the issue of toxic masculinity. Toxic masculinity is defined by the exaggerated and unrealistic traits we attribute to masculinity. White Ribbon engages men and boys in the prevention of gender-based violence by promoting equity and transforming social norms. Most men in Ontario are generally supportive of gender equity. However, there is a significant gab between belief and behaviour. David shared statistics to show the important issue in society:

• Approximately every week a woman is killed by her current or former boyfriend or partner.
• Half of Canadian Women will experience some form of Gender-Based Violence
• 1\3 women will experience some form of sexual violence and it is 1/6 for men. 
• On any given night in Canada, 3,491 women and their 2 724 children sleep in shelters because it isn’t safe at home. 

These facts illustrate well the problem in society that we must find a solution to. Family, friends, colleagues, community resources, know about these violent behaviours,  but don’t do anything to stop them. White Ribbon association encourages witnesses to act and challenge these behaviour in order to reduce violence. 

Also, David presented an exercice they do during their conference with groups of men: the man box. This exercice consists of men defining elements that they consider as strong. Men usually define strength as: physically strong, emotionless, controlling, etc. Young Men who try to conform to the man box are much more likely to perpetrate bullying than their peers outside to the box. The impacts of these masculinity norms on women and queer people are usually discrimination (transphobia, homophobia, sexism), violence (physical, verbal, online), emotional labor (expectations, compensating lack of support networks). However, there are also many impacts on men and boys such as loneliness, poor social skills, more limited connection with loved ones, limited self-care, etc. Victims are often women or members of the LGBTQ+ community and the perpetrator are very often men. This is largely due to the way we raise our boys. Society must act to challenge these norms together. For example, next time instead of laughing at a sexist joke, tell the person you don’t think it is funny. This will allow the person to question his action, and prevent him from doing it again. We should start defining strength as: in control of self, empathy and compassion, mature, character, endurance, resilience, accountable, etc. This will not only help men to feel better about themselves, but it will also prevent gender-based violence. 

This conference was very interesting, and everyone should have to see it to spread the message and bring awareness to this issue. Here is a video created for White Ribbon Day in Australia:

As cartoonist from Montreal, Sophie Labelle, who originally studied at UQAM to become a teacher gave us a fantastic presentation on March 4th, 2019.  The factor that I enjoyed most about her presentation was that it was not planned.  She came on stage with a very brief idea of what she was going to say and really just went with the flow of things.  This way of presenting made it a lot of interesting for the audience and I believe that many people would agree with this. 

In my opinion, the purpose of her presentation was to show us the importance of proper representation of marginalized groups in the media.  Her comics about LGBTQ+ themes and feminism have impacted our community in multiple ways.  Through the sarcasm and humour portrayed in these comics, she is trying to send a message and really trying to make of the LGBTQ+ community feel as though they belong and give them a safe space.  She is trying to avoid the stereotypical representations of transgenders and representing them for who they really are.  During her talk she exclaimed “I do not have an educational intent with these comics but it doesn’t mean they they can’t be used for educational purposes”.  Here she is explaining to us that she designs these comics because she can and she wants to. She creates these comics so that these groups feel as though they have something they can relate to and be a part of as well. 

Her comics upset a lot of people and it also bothers a lot of people when she draws characters that are younger teenagers.  Nevertheless, while explaining this she also made a good point when she said “many forget that trans adults were once children too”, and this is very true.  People feel threatened that trans people can exist without justifying themselves.  All this hate she received really helped her build a platform for herself.  “My haters were my first real readers and did a great job at helping me advertise my work”, she said. Her parents and those surrounding her did not make her transition easy and with these comics she is hoping to help those going through rough patches. 

Overall, I really enjoyed her presentation.  Her style of presenting made what she had to talk about a lot more interesting.  After the presentation I went and looked up one of her comics and really enjoyed reading them.  Although her purpose was not to educate us, I still learned a lot from it and would recommend her to many of my friends. 

Soraya Chemaly discuss how women have much more stress than men. She defends her facts with statistics that she has found through University surveys, as well as her own personal experience. Not only do women get a disadvantage at their own careers, but they also have a disadvantage at home. This meaning that they can work just as many hours as men, doing the same kind of work labor, but get paid less. While at home they are the ones that have to “take care of the house”, this is mainly house chores, and child care.

Growing up in a household were you have three brothers can be very exhausting. For instance my twin, who has a full-time job, but does not attend school, never gets yelled, or asked why is the sink full. Even if I am not home all day , because I’m either at school, or at work, I always get complaints about why the sink is full. Personally this gets me very aggravated, because even though i have to worry about school and work, I also have to worry about house chores, since my mother works two full-time jobs, seven days a week. When the women in the recording mentioned that she feels extremely exhausted every day, because she always has something on her mind, she can never just relax. I personally can relate to that, and I know a bunch of women that feel this way. As well, when she mentioned the box, that he husband took out the box, but he never put it back. She was not mentioning it to him, because she wanted to notice if he would realize on his own. Since he was the one who took it, he should have been the one to put it back. Eventually, she finally told him about the box, she then argued how it’s not fair, that even though she had nothing to do with that box, she still had to tell her husband to put it away. I personally experienced this when i see my grandparents together. For instance; my grandfather will take out chairs if we’re having a big family supper, but after the dinner is over he does not put the chairs back. In fact, he waits a couple days until my grandmother tells him too. Somethings are just common sense, you use something, you put it back when you’re done, your wife, and your girlfriend should not always have to remind you to put things back in their places when they are no longer in use.

The way that this issue can be resolved is if our education system discussed it, instead of focusing on gender roles, they should have a class that speak about gender inequalities. If you are healthy, than your wife, and girlfriend shouldn’t have to pick up after you, you should know your role, which is not only going to work, and providing for your family financially, but also helping with housework. I personally have seen improvements throughout the years, for instance when i compare my sister-in-law, and brother’s relationship, to my own parents. I see that my brother does cook, and does do dishes, even if he had a long day at work. Some days she”ll cook, and some days they even cook together. When comparing this to my parents relationship, i would say that my father did not cook, or clean, he mostly did the fun stuff, like play games with us, and then not pick up after himself. When comparing the old generation, to the newer one, I noticed that they’re improvements, and hopefully as time progress, so will equality for women.

Karina

   David Garzon is a community Engagement Manager at White Ribbon, this organization goal is to educate young men about violence towards all people, and genders. During his speech, he mentioned that this organization is important to him because he personally experienced his own family members who were getting abused in their own relationship. He then elaborated on the situation about how hard it was for his aunt to leave that relationship, not because she didn’t think she deserved better, but abusive relationships are known to manipulate the victim. He then went on to discuss about how both female, and males can be the abuser in the relationship, but studies show that it is usually the man, the reason for this is because how society shapes them. He explained how men are forced to conform into certain social norms (boy in the box), that impact the way men feel, and act. For instance, men are supposed to be emotionless, if they show to much emotions, they get insulted for it, and feel less manly. The reason they act and feel this way is because they’re known to be the dominant culture, and in order to stay that way they feel as if they have to prove to everyone that they are “tough”. Some men take this to extreme levels by abusing their significant other, to prove to them that they are the ones with the power.

      His speech was very inspirational, I personally think he is very brave for doing what does, especially when he mentioned that he talked to a bunch of athletes. The reason why I viewed that as bravery is because athletes are known to be the “tough guys”, they are known to not sure emotions, personally from my own experiences with athletes they act like they are to “cool” to care. The fact that he did his speech in front of them show that this movement does mean a lot to him, he does not care about negative backlash, but wants everyone to be aware of the consequences that abusive relationship has not only on the victim, but on the abuser itself. Another reason why I highly respect him, and his organization is because instead of dealing with the issue after it occurs, they deal with it before, they are trying to prevent it from happening, and making younger males aware that you can be manly, without having to abuse your partner.

     In my opinion, I personally believe that everyone can benefit from this speech, because not only does it make men aware of being violent in relationships, but it also makes everyone aware of how common abusive relationships are. After his speech as I am walking pass a group of guys, I over heard the group of guys talking about his speech, in a positive way. They mentioned that they never really thought about how an abusive relationship can impact someone’s life. I am not saying that they are abusers, but instead saying that they recognized the seriousness of the topic itself. A lot of people tend to forget the seriousness of abusive relationships just because they haven’t experienced one personally or have seen one. This speech can help these people become aware, that if you ever notice a relationship that seems unhealthy, then chances are it is, don’t ignore the signs because you don’t believe that it’s your business. If the speech taught us one thing, is that abusive relationships are all around us, we just don’t seem to pay enough attention to notice. For more information about this organization you can visit; https://www.whiteribbon.ca/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwg73kBRDVARIsAF-kEH9OqG39GcaNDNx3RJdjPNAdkrrUOjwtOrCSbWGr-mDv612TOKBazxYaAtuNEALw_wcB

“Our Future has no violence against women and girls!”

Karina