Happy International Men's Day!

Wether it is a “joke” depend. Like BLM or any other “movement.” If you legitimately use international mens day as a platform for positivity and gender relations or if you use the veil of positivity to mask something else somewhat defines it. That said.....

If a pillar of the holiday is to promote gender relations... it seems a poor choice to name the holiday in such a divisive way. The name “international men’s day” could be easily and foreseeably cause people to have an aversion. It somewhat starts things off a wrong foot of the idea is to connect across gender. The name “international men’s day” also somewhat creates at least an idea of bias on gender. So the name itself seems to be perhaps a stumbling block to the stated goal.

Now- “promoting positive male role models” seems a worthy goal. Society does regularly promote males- often disproportionately- but it often promotes negative male role models. So focusing on men who are positive examples seems noble. Of course... what is our definition of “positive” here? Men who defy traditional gender roles and norms? That might align to the stated ideals. Like if Rupaul or someone similar was held up as a role model for men- a man who defies traditional gender roles and doesn’t even care about wether you consider him a man or a woman.

Celebrate men’s positive contributions.... this one... I mean, we celebrate men’s achievements good and bad every day. I suppose highlighting the “good” ones and admonishing the “bad ones” would have value. But again- this one depends on how we choose the “good” or “bad” and how we celebrate that.

As far as discussing challenges men face... this is probably one of the more legitimate ones. With an asterisk. Men DO face challenges and there ARE things that are unfair to men in society. And well... as a general fact, men as a group tend to face less problems from being men and those problems can often be called less severe. But they are problems. So having a day for men to voice their issues and society listen seems like a good idea- if they could avoid trying to overshadow the problems of others the rest of the time.

Lol. You’re actually perhaps the 5th person on this site in memory to have made this comment over the years. And generally- I am. Or at least people seem to think I am, as I am told such and get invited to a large number of events. It is easier for me to say things in person verbally as text based communication leaves lots of room for misunderstanding and less room to correct these things in real time. You’re also missing body language and tone that can allow you to convey things verbally that require more information in writing. Parties also generally have the benefit of you knowing the crowd or at least being able to read a room. The internet, you and everyone else could be anyone and I don’t know you or anything about you, so I cannot make assumptions about your culture or what you know or anything like that. Also- I don’t know about your parties, but parties I attend rarely involve in depth discussions of complex social issues amongst strangers who don’t share certain points...

.. of reference. There are of course certain social gathers where weightier issues are discussed, and sometimes deeper conversations do come up at parties, but generally myself and most people I know follow the classic etiquette that a party is not the place to flaunt things that have controversies attached and deep feelings that can cause trouble and frustration. It’s usually better to keep things in a place where you aren’t going to offend people or alienate those party guests who may not share your views. Liquor also tends to be served at parties, which makes any serious discussion of hot issues often ill advised. That’s my experience anyway, but to each their own.