Not Perfect, Better
Why 'Not Perfect, Better'?
In November of 2024, we began our #welisten campaign where we spoke to men and boys in a series of focus groups and interviews. The focus groups were made up of men from all different cultures, ages, classes and experiences, yet they had a common thread: many men couldn’t tell us what a “good man” or a “good relationship” looked like.
A lot of them felt disconnected from the issue of violence against women – not because they didn’t want to be part of the solution, but because they felt like they couldn’t be. They questioned whether they could speak up if they knew they still had room to be better.
The answer to that is yes and it’s why we started Not Perfect, Better.
Toolkit
Better with your partner
From building respectful relationships to tackling consent in hook ups, our guide shows you how to be a better partner.
Better with your kids
Parenting is difficult, but our guide on being better with your kids can make those tough parenting talks a little bit easier.
Better with your mates
Our Better with your Mates guide shows how to disrupt disrespect and call in your mates, rather than calling them out.
We all have ways we can be better
Every one of us has some way we can be better. Better with our loved ones, better with our communities and better with ourselves.
We’re calling on all men to work on being better. To be the role model that you needed growing up.
You might lose your phone five times a day or snore louder than a construction site, but you put the effort in every day to be a respectful partner and that’s the role model we need.
Nobody expects perfect, but we should expect better and White Ribbon Australia is here to help you work on that.
Rethinking primary prevention
Not Perfect, Better is a shift in how we think about preventing violence against women. The evidence tells us that what drives violence against women, such as rigid gender stereotyping and dominant forms of masculinity, is bad for everyone.
We’ve all heard the stereotypes pushing that men need to act in a certain way – that they need to be physically strong, that they have to “man up” if they’re struggling, or that men can’t take on caring roles because “that’s for women”.
These stereotypes hurt everyone – men and women.
Not Perfect, Better asks men to stop thinking of preventing gendered violence as something heroic men do for women. Instead, we need to think of preventing gendered violence as small, everyday actions we can all do for everyone.
Join us in being better
Read our guides and commit to being a better version of you. To stay up to date with our campaign, follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
You can also help by providing a vital donation. Without Government funding, we rely on donations to keep creating resources, running programs and advocating for change.
