Tar Heel men sign on to anti-violence pledge

The free T-shirts ran out and white ribbon lapel pins gradually dwindled, but for four hours, the flow of professors, students, hospital staff and visitors signing the White Ribbon Pledge against gender-based interpersonal violence remained constant.

As part of the seventh annual Carolina Men Care campaign, medical students and the UNC Hospitals’ Beacon Child and Family Program collected 444 signatures for a pledge to end interpersonal violence.

Beacon provides support for victims of child abuse, domestic violence, elder abuse and other forms of interpersonal violence.

“It’s really important for men and women to step up when inappropriate comments are made and to educate people about gender violence,” said Diana Bass, program director at Beacon.

Bass said the event has expanded each year since it began in 2006.

Judy Betterton, a social worker with Beacon, said awareness is paramount because it takes a large effort to stand up to change social norms.

“We do this every year to encourage men to think about how women are treated and stand up to violence against women,” she said. “It takes a larger community to make change where domestic violence is concerned.”

Bass said cultural awareness of the issues the program deals with has improved since Beacon’s founding in 1996.

“(Gender violence) is a public health issue, not a feminist issue or a women’s issue,” she said. “I’ve had patients in the emergency room tell me they would have been dead if their neighbors hadn’t called the police.

“We need to be aware and support people who are in that situation.”

Betterton said about 12 percent of the patients that Beacon cares for are men.

Angela Rogers, a housekeeper at UNC Hospitals, said personal experience motivated her to sign the White Ribbon Pledge.

“I signed because no one should take matters in their own hands and hurt someone else, especially adults,” she said. “My mom was beaten by her husband when I was a little girl. No one should be treated like that.”

UNC Hospitals Police Lt. William Mazurek also said a firsthand experience with the consequences of domestic violence caused him to attend the event.

“I’m part of the domestic violence task force here at the hospital,” he said. “I signed because I feel every man should treat a woman like a princess, like I do my wife.”

Other participants had simpler reasons to sign the pledge.

Chris Gardner, a first-year medical student, signed the pledge and collected his free Carolina Men Care T-shirt with a group of male medical students.

“It just seems like the right thing to do on a very basic visceral level,” he said.

Aravinda de Silva, a professor of microbiology, is married to the co-director of Beacon. He said more progress is necessary in the quest to promote awareness of gender-based violence, and not just in Chapel Hill.

“Domestic violence and interpersonal violence is really under-recognized and a common problem here, in the country, around the world,” he said.

“What’s sad is that it’s a lot more common than people appreciate. People used to call it ‘domestic’ violence as if it just happened in the home but it’s a lot broader than that. It happens between intimate partners and among students, too.”

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