The White Ribbon Campaign might not sound very manly, but that’s just the image campus feminist group Men Against Violence (MAV) is hoping to combat as it gears up for its first campus-wide event next month.

The creation of MAV last spring came at a pivotal point in campus history. According to the 2007 Stanford Safety and Security Report, compiled by the Department of Public Safety, the number of reported rapes on campus jumped from zero in 2005 to nine in 2006.

However, MAV president Jesse Wallin ‘08 and others agree that this statistic does not reflect an actual increase in the number of rapes, but an increase in groups that raise awareness.

“That higher number is because more outreach groups like MAV are starting to get out there so survivors know where they can go,” Wallin said. “As students become aware of those resources, those numbers will unfortunately increase because they will begin to better reflect the nature of the problem.

“It’s not likely that sexual assault itself is increasing on campus, but that understanding and awareness are becoming more accurate,” he continued, adding that rape is the most statistically underreported violent crime.

Continuing this trend toward more frequent reporting of rape is one of the reasons that Wallin and the rest of MAV, which consists of a core group of six to eight male students, will hold the White Ribbon Campaign next month.

The campaign was established in 1991 in response to the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Canada on Dec. 6, 1989, when an anti-feminist gunman killed 14 women. During the campaign, which traditionally starts in late November and lasts until Dec. 6, wearing a white ribbon signifies opposition to violence against women.

However, because Dec. 6 falls in the middle of Dead Week at Stanford, MAV decided to hold the event earlier in November. The students plan to hand out the ribbons in White Plaza and hope to distribute at least 2,000 ribbons to men in the community.

“Some will grab them and walk on, but some will stop and talk to you about it,” he said. “This is a great way to raise awareness about the issue, because often men are not aware that it exists or concerns them.”

Wallin added that women are certainly welcome to stop and take ribbons as well.

“Women are absolutely our allies in this campaign,” he said. “Plus, a woman may take a ribbon and give it to her friend or boyfriend, which is another great way that we can reach men, as most men won’t get involved until they see that violence against women affects them in some way.”

MAV was founded last year by Wallin, a transfer student from the University of Michigan, where he was involved in a similar organization. According to Jessa Edra ‘09, a student intern at the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness in Palo Alto, Wallin was “shocked” to find no such group at Stanford.

The group is “dedicated to the education of men on campus about how male socialization affects men’s health and behavior, with a particular focus on issues of sexual assault and relationship abuse,” according to its mission statement.

The all-male focus of MAV could draw criticism from groups who feel this takes the emphasis of the movement away from women’s empowerment, Wallin acknowledged. He claimed, however, to have encountered nothing but support in the group’s dealings with more traditional feminist groups on campus.

“While the majority of men don’t commit acts of sexual assault or relationship abuse, most acts of sexual assault and relationship abuse are perpetrated by men,” he said. “This unfortunate reality necessitates that men must become involved in the movement to end violence against women as our gender is primarily responsible for it even if we as individual men are not.”

Wallin backed up this assertion with the statistic that, according to most studies, the vast majority of rapists are men, between 97 and 99.8 percent.

That’s why, he said, it is so important for men to be involved in the issue of violence against women, which MAV’s White Ribbon Campaign will highlight.

“It’s not just a ribbon,” he said. “It’s a pledge not to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women.”