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International Men's Day


Eyru

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Today is November 19th, which marks International Men's Day. It's not a particularly celebrated day; I wouldn't have known about it had I not, by happenstance, come across an article on the subject late last night. Unlike for International Women's Day (which falls on March 8th of every year), Google hasn't made a 'Google Doodle" on its home page to celebrate, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a media outlet that will even acknowledge the day.

 

But that doesn't mean that it's a day not worth recognising. What follow are a few reasons why. In the United States of America (because that's where most of you live, let's be honest):

  • Women are more likely than men to attain a post-secondary education.
  • A greater percentage of men are unemployed.
  • Men are more likely to become alcoholics.
  • Men are more likely then women to receive a harsher sentence for an identical crime.
  • Men are almost six times more likely to commit suicide than women.

 

My intention isn't to start an argument about sexism or gender inequality. Worldwide, women face -and have historically faced- much more discrimination than men. However, that doesn't mean that men don't have issues of their own that need to be addressed.

 

For example, the issue of alcoholism. Males are much more likely to become alcoholics; does this have something to do with how the consumption of alcohol is portrayed in the media? Or does it stem from our cultural disapproval of males asking for help, leaving them feeling like alcohol is the only way to cope with their problems?

 

My ideal world is one where everybody feels safe, accepted, and equal, regardless of their age, race, gender, or sexual orientation. That's why I'm so excited to be a part of this generation, where homosexual discrimination is finally starting to be eliminated, and more and more people are speaking out to address sexism against women. However, my ideal world can't come into being if we ignore the issues that plague half of the world's population. I encourage everyone to learn more about these issues, and I hope that, in the future, we'll be able to solve some of these problems, just like we're working today to solve the problems of inequality.

 

That said, happy International Men's Day.

 

***

 

Sources:

 

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/

http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/2004_report_update/en/

http://www.terry.uga.edu/~mustard/sentencing.pdf

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-in-the-us-statistics-and-prevention/index.shtml

***

 

I'm leaving the comments open in the hopes that intelligent, respectful discussion will occur. Unfortunately, many people have, in the past, shown themselves incapable of conversing politely, so I'll be keeping an eye on the discussion, and won't hesitate to lock it if things start getting out of hand. Play nice! :)

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I wouldn't have know about this day until you mentioned it. Honestly I didn't think such a day actually existed. The sad reality is that while we have problems that plague all the sexes we decide as a society to only pay attention to a few, and this is not just speaking about disenfranchised males, females still are lacking in a wages compared to men, in 2012 women made 76.5 cents to every dollar a man makes, this is no good.

 

The thing is men suffer, but often they do so silently, this is mainly because as a society we have been taught to look down on the male gender, especially when it asks for help. Men are demeaned asking for it, and why? Perhaps because as much as we like to believe our society has advanced, we still view women as the weaker gender and males as the stronger sex, and this demeans both genders. There are many problems, many societal thought processes that must change, informing people of the tragedies that befall both genders will make us a more rational, forward thinking society that cares about the rights of all.

 

I thought this would be an interesting article to add, it's by Peter Marin, and pertains to homeless males: http://keddycsi.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/abandoning-men_-jill-gets-welfare.pdf

Thanks for informing me, and I looked forward to discussion on such matters.

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Nearly 100% of all power plant workers are male.

Nearly 100% of all water filteration workers are male.

 

A large amount(70% or more) of police and firefighters are male.

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deleted post content removed -HH

For starters, reinstating the draft in the modern day would be political suicide unless it was in the event of an invasion. It's also commonly agreed that, if the draft was reinstated, women would be included in it. Times have changed.

 

 

 

deleted post content removed -HH

While I don't identify as a feminist, primarily because I feel egalitarian/equalist covers all my bases in one swing, modern feminism usually has equal focus on both genders. Due to it being a movement that encompasses millions and transcends nations, though, you will find different sects that think of things differently. On the whole, however, you can exchange feminist/egalitarian and just about nothing will change.

 

The rest of your points are more or less solid, but I felt these two needed discussing.

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pretty much all of those examples that TN05 mentioned - as well as most of the other issues mentioned in both the entry itself and the preceding comments - are feminist issues. pretty much all of them have their roots in society's attitude towards women. pretty much all of them could potentially be helped or even solved by feminism. the problem isn't that feminism doesn't work, it's that people are either too ignorant or just plain-old-sexist to let it work.

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Actual femenism is equality for all genders through examination and change of the patriarchal society in which men are viewed as the superior sex.

 

Any other rebranding of the term is delusional.

 

 

On-topic, happy 323rd Men's day of 2013.

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The thing is men suffer, but often they do so silently, this is mainly because as a society we have been taught to look down on the male gender, especially when it asks for help.

 

This is not true.

 

 

 

 

deleted post content removed -HH

For starters, reinstating the draft in the modern day would be political suicide unless it was in the event of an invasion. It's also commonly agreed that, if the draft was reinstated, women would be included in it. Times have changed.

 

This is true.

 

In short: people are just people, days should just be days, patriarchy is wrong, and I'm in a Starbucks mood tonight.

 

-Tyler

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Nearly 100% of all power plant workers are male.

Nearly 100% of all water filteration workers are male.

 

A large amount(70% or more) of police and firefighters are male.

source and reason for why you even posted this?

-Dovydas

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Needless attacks; also discussion of inappropriate material not permitted on BZP. -HH

 

-1 proto for this, and also suspension for following remarks. You are also no longer allowed to post in this entry and further posts will be removed until moderation actions can be completed. -HH

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Actual femenism is equality for all genders through examination and change of the patriarchal society in which men are viewed as the superior sex.

 

Any other rebranding of the term is delusional.

 

 

On-topic, happy 323rd Men's day of 2013.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

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You can't be serious. Well, it's looking like this blog entry is gonna need about 20 ccs of unfiltered factoid in T minus three...two...one.

 

The draft is gone. Men are not being forced to sign up for the military anymore. It is a backwards system and it was shuffled out long after the political quagmire that was Vietnam. If it ever came back, women would be drafted too. The world has changed. You're clinging to the same talking point that had gaping chasms in it forty years ago.

 

-Tyler

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There are definitely things that hurt men specifically thanks to the disgusting model of patriarchy that dominates our society and many other societies. Men are held to unfair standards, forced into harmful ideals, abused, etc. While it is on a much smaller scale when compared to the history of ongoing horrid treatment and oppression of women, LGBTQ+, and POC, it is definitely important to remember that everyone is being hurt to some degree by this model. The ideal picture is not just "man". It's the strong, sharp, privileged, straight, white, cis-gendered man in particular. In the feminist movement, it is important to consider everyone that is hurting and speak out against that. Do we need a specific day set aside for it? Ehhhhh. Not as much as the other groups do. But in the end, the point is everyone needs to work to break this current harmful system.

 

The reason, though, that the feminist movement and things like International Women's Day, Black History Month, and The Day of Silence are so much more prominent is because they represent the ones who have been much more widely abused, killed, smothered, silenced, held back, and treated horrifically. We ask that men recognize this and work with us to destroy this system, and in return we recognize the issues that they face, often issues that go hand-in-hand with ours (for instance, men receive a lot of garbage for allegedly "acting like women", sending a message that stereotypical "womanly" things are bad.)

 

That being said, any post that breaks the BZP rules of appropriate discussion and acceptance, spits on such movements, or display blatant harmful attitudes will be dealt with accordingly by staff. We need to be able to support each other and talk about these things without gross ignorance, personal stress, and reinforcement of harmful ideals.

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[removed by HH, lovely lass]

[NOTE]: The above quote referred to a logical fallacy of a military draft existing outside of political regimes. The following is a response to that.

 

My country hasn't drafted conscripted anyone since 1944. Yours in 1969, 25 years before you were born.

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That is a contingency plan for all men in case the draft needs to come back, and is something totally different than being picked and commanded to fight and die for your country. If the real draft came back, and not some Call of Duty-esque sham, then women would be just as likely to be drafted.

 

-Tyler

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So today is International Men's Day?

 

So is every other day in society.

 

And this is necessary to say because?

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So today is International Men's Day?

 

So is every other day in society.

6/10. Edgy, but needs a bit more tinfoil.

 

Your blatant and cynical disregard for issues that men, in fact, do have, often due to the same patriarchy I think we can all agree is terrible and wrong, is doing the feminist movement a huge disservice.

-Dovydas

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Why is Men's Day even a thing. We don't need it. Almost every country I can think of has a patriarchal bias.

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Why is Men's Day even a thing. We don't need it. Almost every country I can think of has a patriarchal bias.

If it's any consolation, men get a day, women get a month. That should balance things out.

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Why is Men's Day even a thing. We don't need it. Almost every country I can think of has a patriarchal bias.

It's lovely to assume that patriarchy only hurts women, but as Hari, HH, and others have already proven in this same blog entry, that is simply not true.

-Dovydas

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If we have International Women's Day then why wouldn't we have one for men? It's just like how we have a Father's and Mother's Day.

 

That's how you keep things equal. Like it should be.

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Why is Men's Day even a thing. We don't need it. Almost every country I can think of has a patriarchal bias.

 

Because equality?

 

As HH said, we're trying to move away from putting one gender before the other, so if that is what it's all about, having a men's day along with a women's day (like we have Mother's and Father's day already) doesn't seem like a big deal and just a logical conclusion.

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You know what, it's a testament to the downright posionous climate of the blogs that someone can be called delusional-a serious mental illness-over how they used a word.

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