“50 per cent of the door takings go to White Ribbon and the other 50 per cent go to the bands, because musicians are a charity too,” says Man Up organiser and Cherry Bar sound guy, Dave ‘Red’ Whip. “The main thing we wanted to do is raise awareness. I wanted the Melbourne rock’n’roll community to speak out on this. And I wanted the people in the bands to be compensated in some sense for their efforts and their willingness to put themselves out there.”
For Friday night’s Cherry Bar event, local favourites Redcoats top the bill, amply supported by Don Fernando, Sure-fire Midnights and Redro Redriguez. On Saturday the action moves to Yah Yah’s, with The Mercy Kills, My Dynamite, Chris Russell, Shannon Bourne and Empire of Poets all making a ruckus.
Along with the bunch of excellent bands, White Ribbon ambassador and musician Jesse Hooper will be speaking at Man Up. In case you’ve got any questions about the seriousness of this issue in Australia, the statistics are plainly shocking. Research indicates one in three Australian women have been violently assaulted by someone they know. On top of this, domestic violence is the greatest cause of homelessness for women and their children in Australia.
The White Ribbon campaign is not only committed to building a future where women are no longer victims of male violence, but it also highlights how crucial it is for men to apply themselves to eradicating the problem.
“My main thing here is that men are the ones who make the fist,” says Whip. “The violence against women is a disease among men. It’s historically been thought of as a feminist issue and men sort of wash their hands of it and stay away. They don’t get involved, they don’t kick and scream and yell and shout and set about creating change. They just think they’re women’s problems. I really think that attitude needs to change.”
It’s certainly not brilliant events such as Man Up are needed, but until domestic violence is eliminated, it’s absolutely essential for awareness-raising initiatives to continue.
“I believe there’s sort of a fog,” says Whip. “Men don’t understand the privileged position that they actually enjoy in society. They’re frequently making themselves out to be victims – of women psychologically victimising them. But they don’t realise that men hold most of the positions in parliament, make more money than women, are not tied so strongly to families and children.
“They don’t understand that men have largely created the world that we’re currently in and have been brought up with attitudes that aren’t necessarily right. They believe, just because that’s what they’ve grown up into, that it’s natural. Even women don’t realise how much disrespect to women is going on because there’s this fog that we’ve all been born into and brought up with. There’ll be events until that attitude changes.”
The prominent role of live music in Melbourne means it’s an apt platform for underlining this issue’s urgency.
“Every day of every week there’s musicians on a stage with several people there listening to them,” Whip says. “If that opportunity was taken to bring about social change then that’s a good thing.
“Men need to get involved and wipe out domestic violence wherever they see it – or any violence against women. They take should take advantage of this male privilege that we do have to bring about equality and change. We should use our privilege to end our privilege.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
