The White Ribbon lobby is more interested in pushing ideology, than in stopping violence

Despite its claims about wanting to stop violence, the White Ribbon lobby group appears to be more interested in promoting ideology.

The White Ribbon lobby group uses selective statistics and statements to give a misleading impression of violence in Australia.

In response, the health information site MensHealthAustralia.net released a statement, endorsed by an international coalition of professionals and academics. The press release and the supporting paper provide a more comprehensive analysis of violence in Australia.

For example the paper shows:

- More males are victims of violence than women.

- About a quarter of the violence against women is committed by other women.

- Men experience violence in the home at almost the same rate as women (half from males, half from females),

- Contrary to the claims of the white ribbon lobby, the Australian community has a higher acceptance of violence against men, than it has of violence against women.

Violence is a significant problem in Australia and a responsible discussion and strategy is needed.

The white ribbon lobby ignores any violence that doesn't match its gender-based paradigm (see more challenge to gender-based family violence paradigm). The white ribbon lobby also manipulates its analysis and statements to fit its anti-male paradigm - e.g. white ribbon avoids mentioning that a quarter of the violence that women experience, comes from other women.

If the White Ribbon lobby group is trying to reduce violence, many aspects of its behaviour seem strange.

For example:

The domestic violence industry and the white ribbon lobby both ignored indigenous Australia, where violence rates were highest, because it didn't fit their paradigm. It was left to Nanette Rogers, Alice Springs Crown Prosecutor, to break the silence, and detail the problems on ABC's Lateline, bypassing the industry lobby groups.

In 2006, the domestic violence industry produced advertising with convicted killer Chopper Read as its hero. In the ad, Read threatens men with violent assault.

In 2006, advertising for White Ribbon Day featured fathers self-mutilating or being maimed, often in front of their children. This campaign threatened children, and further desensitized the community to violence against men. The community wouldn't have tolerated animals being shown this way.