Man Up was the call. A challenge was issued to all men during the 4th Annual Massachusetts White Ribbon Day held at the Massachusetts State House on March 3, 2011. This campaign is designed to encourage men to take a pledge to end violence against women. The event was held at the State House.  It was attended by Mary R. Lauby who serves as the Executive Director of the Jane Doe Inc., Lt. Governor Timothy P. Murray, and many legislators and advocacy groups. The Honorary Chair was Governor Deval Patrick, who described masculinity as kindness and showing vulnerability and having nothing to do with hurting people.

The discourse was framed as a public health issue. Just in the last year, Massachusetts saw 30 murders attributed to domestic violence. Michael D. Weekes, President and CEO of MA Providers’ Council, summed it up perfectly when he encouraged men to “man up” but in a different way than what society defines as typical manliness. Weekes noted that to “man up is to put down repression“. Tupac Shakur once posed the question to listeners in “Keep Ya Head Up” when he asked, “I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women“? There are no acceptable answers to this question. The only possible solution to end domestic violence is when men decide to end it.

As a volunteer member of the Domestic Violence Task Force at my full time employer, Neighborhood Health Plan, I support the cause to end domestic violence and I challenge men everywhere to take a similar stance. We need to raise our children to respect women. We need to fight the media perception of violent masculinity and the resulting desensitization that results from these portrayals. Men, let us all vow to respect women and end this societal blemish once and for all. It’s time to man up.