Recently Gillette released an ad that called on men to act like basically decent human beings. That is, not to bash other men or sexually assault women, and to intervene as bystanders when witnessing harmful behaviours.

It is something to celebrate when a company like Gillette begins to interrogate some of the toxic masculine tropes that have underpinned their own advertising campaigns in years gone by. The ad was produced by Australian Kim Gehrig, who did an excellent job.

Israeli student Aiia Maasar.

However, while all the women in my life have been excitedly sharing this video, the men in my life have been silent.

Similarly, the comment threads related to this video were dominated by women who were ready to have a conversation about what we can do to support the men in our lives to reject harmful masculine norms. I didn’t see one man engaging in this conversation.