Black Ribbon Campaign for Men
FYI, information about the launch of a new campaign at parliament grounds this Friday 31 August. We invite supporters to join the campaign with a $5 donation; they will receive a black ribbon that can be worn alongside or instead of the white ribbon.
MMA
MINISTRY OF MEN’S AFFAIRS
MINITATANGA MO NGA TANE
PO Box 13130, Tauranga 3141
[email protected]
28 August 2012
MEDIA RELEASE
Black Ribbons for Men
The Ministry of Men’s Affairs, an NGO set up to advance the welfare of men and fathers, announced today that its first project will be the Black Ribbon Campaign with the slogan “Show You Care About Men’.
The Black Ribbon Campaign will be launched when the Ministry of Men’s Affairs opens a temporary office on parliament grounds this Friday 31 August at 1:00pm.
Spokesperson Kerry Bevin said today that violence towards men deserves as much attention as any other violence, but male victims are often ignored.
“Men are the most frequent victims of violence in our community. Male victims hurt just as much and die just as fully as any other victims.”
Kerry Bevin said the Black Ribbon Campaign also hoped to draw attention to other issues such as men’s high suicide rate, high rates of male workplace death and serious injuries, shorter life spans and fathers’ frequent loss of meaningful contact with their children following separation.
“Many areas of gender inequality have been ignored for far too long because it’s men who are disadvantaged and we have lost sight of the importance of caring about men as well as women. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs has cost taxpayers over $100 million since it was set up while men’s issues have received the sum total of $0. It’s time New Zealand worked towards true gender equality by now reducing the many ways in which men are disadvantaged and discriminated against.”
Kerry Bevin expected some opposition to Friday’s launch from those who believe only women’s concerns should be prioritized.
“We hope people who care about men too will attend to show support.”
END
Wonderful idea guys.
The Black ribbon ties in nicely with All Blacks too.
Comment by Skeptic — Wed 29th August 2012 @ 2:28 am
Hi Hans
Have you got a bank account for MMA or MOMA? Hey, what an acronym!! I am in Latvia and am keen to donate a lot more than $5. Maybe POST bank account details and any surplus from this exercise can be used for further propagation of the cause.
Comment by triassic — Wed 29th August 2012 @ 5:01 am
Well done Kerry, Hans
Comment by John Brett — Wed 29th August 2012 @ 8:40 am
Where can we buy these black ribbons. Thanks
Comment by Kathryn Mary Davie — Wed 29th August 2012 @ 12:16 pm
Who is selling these black ribbons. Will they be in Auckland as well as Wellington please? Thanks
Comment by Kathryn Mary Davie — Wed 29th August 2012 @ 12:17 pm
Bank account for Black Ribbon Campaign is:
Email for the Ministry of Men’s Affairs is:
Please send an email with your name, address, the date you made a donation and the amount, and we will send a black ribbon, supporter’s card and further information.
Comment by Hans Laven — Wed 29th August 2012 @ 3:43 pm
A very good idea. Clearly define what subjects you stand for and keep your focus relevant. You have my vote.
Comment by hornet — Wed 29th August 2012 @ 3:43 pm
Thanks all for the support and suggestions.
Triassic, the acronym MOMA is excellent and I think we should use it; I will have to change the email address!
Hornet, yes thanks for the reminder to be clear about the aims. The slogan “Show you care about men” allows a wide range of men’s issues to be included but we need to associate this with a limited range of specific ones.
Kathryn Mary Davie, black ribbons will be available at the Wellington launch on Friday but generally they can be requested via email and will be sent by mail.
Comment by Hans Laven — Wed 29th August 2012 @ 3:51 pm
Great organisation. $20 zipping it’s way across to the bank account overnight.
Comment by David Jade Young — Wed 29th August 2012 @ 8:56 pm
Hi John and Hans,
I am wondering John with your website skills if you could create a click on form that would allow supporters to put in their name and address that will link to an email address provided by Hans for the purpose of a mail out of a black ribbon for a donation to the bank account.
Comment by Down Under — Thu 30th August 2012 @ 1:20 pm
Thank you. I have not heard anything on talkback or in the media.Seen as though it is Father’s Day weekend it would be good to have some talk on Ian Grants book on Fathers being important and the “Show you care about Men” talked about instead of what talkback is on about at the moment. Problem is people have to work and cannot sit around waiting to get on the line. Guess I could send them a text.Fathers, Grandparents, Mothers and Sisters should all be donating a $1 ..afterall the way it goes it could be them next. lets hope MP’s go into the MENZ site for Fathers Day and see what is happening out there.Good Luck
Comment by Kathryn Mary Davie — Thu 30th August 2012 @ 11:10 pm
Yes of course I could create a form, but unfortunately I have many other voluntary web projects that have a higher priority.
In any case, about 95% of people will choose to send an email rather than complete a form in my experience, so I don’t think it wouldn’t be particularly helpful.
What would be better is if someone from MOMA set up a PayPal account and created a button that people could click to donate on-line with their credit card.
Comment by JohnPotter — Fri 31st August 2012 @ 9:04 am
There’s no such thing as feminism power in New Zealand now. Didn’t anyone take a good look at National’s moves?
Besides everyone fighting for central government and central ideology, didn’t anyone stop to figure out what fighting for men’s rights mean?
Comment by julie — Sat 1st September 2012 @ 6:19 pm
Julie, I must have missed National’s moves. Are you telling me that establishing, and defending equal political, economic, social rights for women and establishing equal opportunities for women in education and employment is under threat? Or are you saying that there are moves afoot to grant men equal rights (egual shared care) in the female dominated domain of parenthood?
Comment by triassic — Sat 1st September 2012 @ 7:23 pm
Yes, didn’t you hear. The nats are going to stop wasting money on the ministry of women’s affairs as we now have equality. It will be disbanded. The law will be changed with regard to assault (male against female) so that only common assault is used. Laws around dpb will be changed to highlight the fact the there are single fathers who have been looking after children all their life so should also expect dpb as a be edit when the kids leave the nest.
Police powers are to be significantly reduced as the on site protection orders will no longer be able to be made. The family court will also be disbanded as it was too feminist and had ruined too many children’s lifes. Instead, equal custody will be granted to both parents and mediation will occur when things are not working. Parental alienation will be an offense under the new rules.
IRD child support will be disbanded as well. A new tribunal will be available to help those couples where child support arrangements can’t be sorted out privately.
The white ribbon campaign will now focus on stopping ALL forms of violence.
The women’s refuges will be renamed the refuge against domestic violence and every one will have 2 dorms. One for men and one for women. Any refuges that do not will be in breach of human rights and be immediately shutdown.
Happy April’s fools day… Oh wait.. Its fathers day. Well, that would be my fathers day wish but like Julie’s statement, it ain’t based on any fact!
Comment by Fathersday — Sun 2nd September 2012 @ 3:48 pm
I am letting you know that ALL pro women action is gone. Everything pro women that was funded is no longer funded. That’s it, nothing exists.
It’s funny for the rich have the money and once in charge… it was all over. I guess women didn’t put enough effort into paying the pied, lol. And in one voting period, it vanished.
I suppose there should be some celebration for that’s that. Now men can go about their business knowing nothing is going to harm them.
I wish I could say the same for women, but then that’s not men’s business, lol.
I am meeting up with greenies now. I have been told they’re allot like me as in giving and expecting nothing in return. I didn’t know there was a whole group of people like me. I already like them.
Comment by julie — Sun 2nd September 2012 @ 5:38 pm
triassic, I also want to add that you are fighting intellectually, which is well above me and my family. I don’t know what goes on in your world and I am not able to judge you or women who call themselves feminists in an intellectually war. Perhaps your war is never ending. 🙂
I am just simple and uneducated. But I know the ground is different and I can relate to the ground.
Comment by julie — Sun 2nd September 2012 @ 6:28 pm
#15 This is marvellous news. I am booking my flight back to NZ today. My 2 uncles who died fighting for NZ in the second world war can now stop turning in their graves. Without the huge financial weight of the old ‘victim’ gravy train sucking the goodness out of society we can get our economy back on track. Children will be so happy to see their Mum and Dad working together for their future. Lawyers who can’t find work can now be used as nannies for the kids on occasions (they know so much about children). Unemployed Judges? Well, the sex industry is now legal, therefore as they are very good a f**king both sexes they will still be on a good wicket.
There Julie, something you can get your head around!
Comment by triassic — Mon 3rd September 2012 @ 1:18 am
Julie- Good luck with the Greenies! They just are like the feminists, wanting money and privilege from everyone but not prepared to give anything in return.
Example, White Ribbon, preaching from on high, whilst cyber-bullying good men who dared criticise them.
Good luck relating to the ground too- we all end up there eventually!
Comment by John Brett — Mon 3rd September 2012 @ 5:29 pm
Fathersday (#15): Thanks, a nice piece of satire! But hey, you must have missed the National government’s announcements that:
(i) Substantial funding will be provided to research the reasons almost 5 times as many men commit suicide as women do, with further funding for male-specific suicide prevention programmes.
(ii) A formal enquiry will be held into why the Ministry of Health has deliberately minimized the extent to which suicide is a gender issue and has deliberately avoided providing any specifically male-appropriate suicide reduction programs.
(iii) The crime ‘infanticide’ a women-only crime with a maximum of 3 years’ prison for female murderers of young children when exactly the same killing by a man would be treated as murder and punished with at least 10 years in prison, will be removed from the statutes.
(iv) Ongoing sexism in welfare benefits, exemplified by the ‘widows benefit’ and the ‘woman alone’ benefit neither of which had any male equivalent, will be investigated and stopped, as will the steep gender imbalance in orders for spousal maintenance in which men who have provided well for wives are forced to keep doing so even after those wives have abandoned them for more exciting new sexual partners.
(v) Research will be funded to increase men’s lifespans to become closer to those of women, and to investigate and address the reasons men die earlier from all leading causes of death.
(vi) Courts have been instructed to ensure that women are sentenced equally to men for the same crimes.
(vii) Police, armed forces, prison officers and other state agencies will require female employees to take an equal share of risk in front-line work and to suffer death and injuries at a rate consistent with their proportions and equivalent salaries in those workforces.
(viii) Employment law will be amended to ensure that jobs entailing higher risk of death and injury are paid more, and that gender equality in wages is conditional upon equal risk being taken by employees.
(ix) False allegations and perjury will be required to be investigated whenever there appears to be evidence of them in legal proceedings concerning families, children and relationship property, and prosecuted whenever possible.
(x) The standard of proof ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ will be used before any accused is treated as guilty in any jurisdiction.
(xi) Denigration of men or women in a generalized way in media or elsewhere will be treated as hate crime. Allegations made in public about men or women will need to be supported by reasonable evidence, otherwise they will be treated as hate crime.
(xii) The Advertising Standards Authority will be required to apply the same standards to advertisements that denigrate or make fun of men as it does regarding women.
(xiii) Relationship property law will ensure that assets owned by individuals prior to the commencement of any relationship continue to belong to that individual at an inflation-adjusted value, and that division of assets (or liability) will apply only to increases during the period of the relationship.
(xiv) Sexual offence laws will be amended to require that, for more serious sexual offences, a jury is convinced that an accused had deliberate intent to commit sexual exploitation and/or sexual activity without consent.
(xv) Marriage law will be amended to provide legal obligations for both parties and penalties for breaching those obligations.
(xvi) A range of programs will be introduced to encourage families to stay together, including counselling support and financial incentives for intact families.
(xvii) Stronger protections will be introduced against unjustified state intervention in families, against state abuse of children by ripping them away from their biological parents unnecessarily, and to increase respect for the authority and rights of parents.
Oh, there were quite a few more too but suddenly I’m not sure whether these National government initiatives have actually been announced yet. Anyway, we should congratulate the government for them don’t you think?
Comment by Hans Laven — Mon 3rd September 2012 @ 11:58 pm
are the black ribbons still available?
Comment by melissa antonievic — Tue 19th August 2014 @ 2:34 pm
Yes black ribbons are still available.
Comment by Kumar — Wed 20th August 2014 @ 12:47 pm
Slow progress for DV male victims awareness.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/new-foundation-says-women-victims-get-the-care-and-money-and-men-get-jeers/news-story/693584dce0ac435cb70c8a33db7194c5
Comment by Voices back from the bush. — Tue 30th August 2016 @ 10:32 am
Has Black Ribbon gone UOF?
I’ve tried twice to contact them to offer my support but had no reply.
Comment by voices back from the bush. — Thu 1st February 2018 @ 3:32 pm
I assume you used the email address mentioned in the comments above?
That would be a concern because I see that is the same one given under the Men’s Affairs Pinned Post.
Comment by Evan Myers — Fri 2nd February 2018 @ 8:50 am
Did anyone else notice that Peter Sharples had his white ribbon on today for Maori language week?
Comment by Evan Myers — Mon 10th September 2018 @ 6:30 pm
Well it do kinda tie in…but I shut up now.
Comment by mama — Mon 10th September 2018 @ 7:40 pm