Aine McGlynnAine is the Senior Fundraising Manager at White Ribbon There are power brokers on every set across Canada. They are mostly men, and they trade in favours, connections and promises. In their hands, they hold the careers of thousands of talented men and women looking for that breakout writing, acting or directing credit. These young talents are hungry, driven, resilient people. They commit to a life of precarious employment, long hours and intense public scrutiny. They face rejection after rejection because the pool is huge and the opportunities are few. My sister, a filmmaker writing on the TIFF blog, puts it like this: “No email a filmmaker wants to get begins with, ‘thank you for submitting your project for consideration.’ What follows is a series of confusingly positive phrases such as: ‘difficult decision’, ‘volume of submissions’, ‘serious consideration’, and ‘kindest regards.’ What I hear, however, other than my own stomach dropping, is usually a self-flagellating narrative involving, ‘why did you think you’d get that anyways?’ Or ‘I bet X got it, they get everything,’ and sometimes, ‘I should get that certificate in social media management, just in case.’ Power brokers depend on the exclusivity of the club of filmmakers and actors.They know that they reside at the top of a pyramid built upon the insecurity and self-doubt of the makers and creators whose vision we, Canadians, pay billions every year to consume. They hold the keys to the club house and they can ask anything of those who want in. They can even collect that fee and never open the door.  Women are the most vulnerable in this scenario. Actress Kelly McGee recently said on CBC’s Q, “We have our fair share of men in this [Canadian] industry at the calibre of Weinstein...Women listening are going to fill in the blanks. Am I gonna tank my career right now in naming them?”
Indigenous women and women of colour face even more of a challenge. Cara Gee remarked on the same episode of Q: “Navigating this industry as an indigenous woman ...I am considered less valuable when I’m walking into those rooms. I don’t have the privilege to speak about what fights I’m fighting”. But you know who does have that privilege? The men who work alongside these power brokers; the men whose careers are well-established; the men who serve on the boards of the companies that benefit most from an industry that often hypersexualizes women and glorifies violent men; the men who review the financing requests for productions where known predators are in charge. Power and privilege rests squarely on the shoulders of these decision makers. Canada lost a legendary creative soul last month. Until the very end of his far-too-short life, Gord Downie used his white, cis-gendered, heteromasculinity as a platform to move us all beyond our narrow visions of ourselves. In 2003, he performed at a White Ribbon benefit concert. In his last public appearances he wore a patch of moosehide, the symbol of the Moosehide Campaign - a campaign to inspire men to speak out about violence against Indigenous women and girls. He took it upon himself to represent a way forward and a vision of what it looks like when privilege meets inequality head on. For those of you mourning Gord’s passing, those of you with the power to carry on his legacy of taking our heads in his hands and turning our gaze towards injustice, don’t close your eyes. Don’t avert your gaze. Your silence earns you nothing and your voice is everything this challenge is missing. Kevin VowlesKevin is White Ribbon's Community Engagement Manager October was a transformative month thanks to #MeToo and #IWill, and I’ve felt increasingly hopeful, as requests for White Ribbon programming have been pouring in at unprecedented levels. Many men and boys have opened their eyes to the prevalence of violence against women and girls. But despite a massive uptick in attention about the roles that men and boys can play in ending violence against women and girls, we still have a powerful and all-pervasive rape culture to stand up against. Last week at a high school speaking engagement, I fielded some really tough and challenging questions from young men entrenched in sexism, misogyny and victim blaming. The more boldly I spoke with young men about the need to believe survivors, the more they became emboldened to object. The more I spoke out against victim blaming, the more they seemed to become convinced that they could freely object and insist that women and girls are making false accusations. These high-school students are not unique. As far as we’ve come there is still denial about men’s violence. This denial grows stronger and more entrenched as gender-based power and systems of violence are disrupted and eroded. As far as the pendulum swings one way, it can swing back just as hard in the other direction. Sometimes we can engage in a fruitful conversation in which perspectives are shared and heard. When I kick back tough questions to youth, sometimes I get gold. For example, a while ago in a three-hour workshop, when asked how students would intervene to prevent alcohol facilitated sexual assault, one young man boasted he would be a perpetrator, and he didn’t care about the impacts on young women. I kicked it back the whole class, and his peers promised they’d never let him get away it. Youth are learning to speak out against their peers’ misogyny and sexism. But sometimes they won’t. Sometimes I get silence and I have to help them get there by taking on the hard topic. Students sometimes laugh when I draw links between homophobia, sexism and violence against women. They think that they are gaining power by making a mockery of the work. Young men can be angry and defensive, and I fear for my safety at times. This shows that the work is needed more than ever. And then sometimes I see young girls crying in their seats in large whole school assemblies. Two weeks ago I was literally mobbed after a school assembly by 15 girls and one young man, many of them indicating they had at some point experienced violence and were grateful that we had come so far to see them and talk about ways to prevent violence. Survivors have been empowered to speak out about violence they’ve experienced. A significant blow to slut shaming has been dealt by the bravery of those writing #MeToo. Globally, awareness has grown about the prevalence of many forms of violence. It could be argued that the seed of an unprecedented culture of deterrence has been planted. Women and girls have created hope by speaking out. Men and boys have created hope by saying what they will do. In my experience the tension has never been greater or thicker, and yet the opportunity for positive change has never been clearer.  Community Engagement Manager Kevin Vowles preps students at Royal St George's College for volunteering with White Ribbon. Youth are learning to speak out against their peers’ misogyny and sexism. But sometimes they won’t. Sometimes I get silence and I have to help them get there by taking on the hard topic. Students sometimes laugh when I draw links between homophobia, sexism and violence against women. They think that they are gaining power by making a mockery of the work. Young men can be angry and defensive, and I fear for my safety at times. This shows that the work is needed more than ever.
And then sometimes I see young girls crying in their seats in large whole school assemblies. Two weeks ago I was literally mobbed after a school assembly by 15 girls and one young man, many of them indicating they had at some point experienced violence and were grateful that we had come so far to see them and talk about ways to prevent violence. Survivors have been empowered to speak out about violence they’ve experienced. A significant blow to slut shaming has been dealt by the bravery of those writing #MeToo. Globally, awareness has grown about the prevalence of many forms of violence. It could be argued that the seed of an unprecedented culture of deterrence has been planted. Women and girls have created hope by speaking out. Men and boys have created hope by saying what they will do. In my experience the tension has never been greater or thicker, and yet the opportunity for positive change has never been clearer. |
AuthorThe White Ribbon blog is authored by members of the White Ribbon team. Archives
December 2020
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