Let's Talk About Men's Day

By: Bonne Leung

Every year on November 19th, men from all around the world get out of bed, throw the curtains open wide, and find that the air is crisper and life is rosier. The birds sing and even the sun smiles, all for International Men’s Day. 

While you may find that description hyperbolic to say the least, you would be surprised how many truly do feel that strongly towards the international celebration. Founded by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh, a history lecturer at University of West Indies, the demand for an ‘IMD’ has existed since its equivalent of International Women’s Day (IWD) was inaugurated in 1909. So in 1992, the male equivalent was inaugurated by Thomas Oaster, though it was Jerome Teelucksingh who revitalised the event. 

According to Teelucksingh, his promotion of IMD is not only a celebration of a gendered day, but to bring awareness to issues affecting men and boys and to address and ‘remove the negative images and the stigma associated with men in our society’. Supposedly, International Men’s Day’s grassroots activism strives for gender equality whilst also acknowledging men and their contributions to society. 

However, some see it as a slap in the face and a mockery of the IWD inauguration given the fact that men’s contributions to society are already acknowledged and celebrated on a regular basis. Since men already benefit from society’s advantages, many pose the question of why this celebration exists at all. 

International Women’s Day was founded to support and continue the fight for the rights and equality for all women around the world, and although there are issues that men face too, they were often the ones sitting at the negotiating tables, so in truth, men have a significant advantage over women in terms of actually being autonomous.  

One could write about the disparities between men and women and find that filling up all the paper in the world couldn’t account for all the imbalances, but that is a task for another day. But a simple example exists in the abortion law. A woman’s right to choose what to do with a cluster of cells used to be arbitrated by men, leering with their judgement. Ironically, a man’s choice of whether or not to get a vasectomy is a completely autonomous choice, and when they are suggested to do so to relieve their partners of the sole burden of making sure they are on contraception, suddenly not having a say in what they do with their bodies is entirely unethical. So, as you can see, some people around the world would disagree with this event, to say the least. 

But like two sides of the same coin, some argue that perhaps International Men’s Day was long overdue, or at least, the current message that addresses toxic masculinity, encouraging involved fatherhood as well as shining a light on men’s mental health was. 

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