I don’t like having an International Men’s Day. It was promoted heavily by men’s rights organisations to “balance” the idea of the very deservedly well celebrated International Womens Day, and as many women have observed every day of the year is men celebrating their masculinity .
It has also been used by companies to “celebrate” the “wonderful” male allies in those companies , who are doing what every man should be doing , treating the women in work and home with respect and equality.
I was invited to one of those type of events and I pointed this out , and was told that was an interesting point of view and wasn’t invited to any more of them !
If the date is going to be noticed / remarked upon then as Male Allies Challenging Sexism ( find us on all social media) says we can use it as an opportunity to bring attention to the values that we should be promoting all year. We produced a postcard to distribute , along with the other 24 in the range , which has a list of values we try and promote e.g Co-operate don’t Compete, Listen don’t Lecture …. Etc
If the International element of Mens Day is going to be recognised as an international event , I would draw attention to the challenging work being done by anti-sexist men in countries like Namibia, South Africa, and Lebanon who I have worked with , and who need great support.
Chris Green on Sexism 