“Without Men in the Conversation, There Is No Cure”

White Ribbon Australia, a charity designed with the vision of creating ‘a nation where every woman is free from all forms of men’s violence and abuse,’ has unfortunately faced a challenging history of campaigns that have been labelled as ‘tone-deaf,’ leaders who have been perpetrators of harrowing acts of violence, and all in all, never having full control over impact that they are trying to achieve. 

Communicare, an organisation based in Western Australia has a team of professionals that aim to create ‘a nation where every person is safe, included and connected.’ They acquired White Ribbon Australia in 2020, and over the past few years, Communicare have been trying to grow awareness and education for the noble cause that White Ribbon Australia stands for. 

In February of this year, Innocean was appointed as communication partner for White Ribbon Australia. Jasmin Bedir, CEO, known for her ability never to back down when the going gets tough and campaigns that have certainly stirred the pot, such as ‘Fck The Cupcakes’ and ‘Drop The Shade’ has been working tirelessly with Wesley Hawes, Innocean’s ECD, her team at Innocean and White Ribbon Australia to create ‘There’s No Good Reason.’

Leading up White Ribbon Day 2023, a newspaper titled “The Daily Issue” was sent out to journalists, media companies, male influencers and more as a physical representation of the gravity of the issue that is men’s violence against women. Innocean reprinted 500 articles retelling the violent, scary and emotional stories of women of all ages, race, sexuality, and religion. These articles represent only 1% of the 48,000 that have been written in 2023 alone. 

Innocean coupled the articles with the excuses that are made when no action is taken to prevent or stop the violence. Together, they have created a heartbreaking and shocking campaign. 

“We went through every article, removed the names of journalists, perpetrators, victims and places. Each article goes into such depth and detail, when you are constantly reading them, you have to absorb every word,” explained Wesley. 

He continued to relay the reality of the situation and stated that articles were ‘coming in thick and fast,’ proving the truth behind the title of the newspaper and the weight of the situation at hand.

“This is a very warm and fuzzy agency, just by the nature of who we are. I suffer from anxiety at times, so we’re always telling people to do what they need to do. If you can’t deal with it, that’s okay. Everyone on the team had the attitude of ‘we want to get this done’ because the state that we are in is horrendous,” said Jasmin. 

Wesley went on to note that every time a new story appeared, it rejuvenated the team. It gave them a reminder that the work being done, although harrowing, is beyond worth while. The idea of the newspaper sprang from conversations had about wanting to cause an impact, to create something that would be tangible. Ideas such as flooding the Bondi Sea Wall with a kilometre and a half worth of articles were considered. However, the newspaper provided a sure fire way of making sure the stories could be read and the weight could be physically felt by those who received a copy. 

“We needed to get on the desks of every journalist in this country. We need them to write about the issue and help us create awareness that White Ribbon needs funding to combat the scale of the problem,” Jasmin explained .

The pair continued to expand on how the campaign, a digital and social media experience, has been designed to ‘demonstrate how violence could be affecting the women in people’s lives and to highlight the important signs to look for.’ The experience takes a person’s social media following, calculates and estimates the number of women among the user's followers and, informed by statistics, determines the frequency with which these women have been subjected to acts of violence. As well as providing these statistics, a personalised asset is provided that can be shared on social media.

The newspaper itself is about 200 pages long, described as the ‘ultimate Trojan horse’ for what White Ribbon Australia is trying to achieve. This campaign is about engaging the “moveable middle”, understanding that men have a significant influence to effect change, to educate themselves about the reality of the world we live in and to understand that this is not just a woman's issue nor is it just a man’s but rather a human issue.

Jasmin described her frustration in particular with the last decade or so, where there has been a popular trope of teaching women to be more resilient, of teaching women how to protect themselves and yet no one has been investing in men. 

“Investing in men is not popular, but it’s not an either/or, it’s an and. We need women’s shelters and other resources like that, but we also need to invest in prevention, in education and rehabilitation. Overwise the cycle continues. But no one wants to talk about that. They (White Ribbon Australia) aren’t a charity like the Cancer Council or Movember. They are pointing the finger at an agenda.’ she said. 

“There’s No Good Reason” serves as an overwhelming reminder to the public that violence against women is an issue that will not disappear overnight, but rather is one that needs constant work. As Jasmin said, “without men in the conversation, there is no cure.”