Good Read - It's International Men's Day - how are you celebrating

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/19/international-mens-day-what-celebrating
<snip>
Today is International Men’s Day. Are you celebrating? And if so, how?

Well, what exactly are we celebrating? Is it “men”, just as they are? “Men” in opposition to women, who already have their International Women’s Day on 8 March? “Men” embracing new ways to be men?

But what about International Men’s Day? Is this some form of political tit-for-tat: since they have their day, we men need ours? Really? After all, International Women’s Day acknowledges women’s exclusion and asks for a greater commitment to gender equality. From that perspective, we actually have International Men’s Day the other 364 days of the year. Here in the US, February is Black History Month. Do we need a separate White History Month – or don’t the other 11 months suffice?

And yet there is one strain of IMD celebrants who claim just that. Men’s rights activists assert that IMD should be a day devoted to recognising the various ways men are oppressed.

The origins of IMD are better-intentioned, but confused – and confusing. Begun originally in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999, today more than 60 countries proclaim its objectives of improving men’s lives, which, organisers tell us, is about focusing on men’s health issues, boys’ development, family activities, and promoting greater gender equality. (Interestingly, this last commitment to promoting gender equality has increased over the past few years, perhaps as an official response to the efforts of the men’s rights groups to hijack the day.)

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Hmm, maybe go out and get a prostate exam?

(And I wrote that even BEFORE I got down to the line about the origin being on focusing on men's health issues.)

But probably not, I think I'll go next door and hug my Dad instead.

Edit, and, btw, I don't know if we need a 'white' history month, but maybe we do need a 'history' month in general. Americans seem more and more to be woefully ignorant of history, and even those of us who think we know it are often wrong. Rerun all those Ken Burns documentaries, that series that runs on the 'American Heroes Channel' on how 'History got it Wrong', etc. Saw one last night on the Alamo, about how the supposed 'heroes' were essentially tea party types - Crockett had gotten voted out of office, said 'To Hell with you' to his constituents and left the US for the Mexican territory of Texas. David Bowie had been trading slaves where it was illegal to do so, and had fled their because there was no extradition treaty with the US, and so on. It wasn't so much a 'valiant last stand' as a bunch of 'Stand Your Ground' idiocy. The guy left in charge of the fort had actually been ordered to take the cannons, blow the fort up and leave, but thought he had a better idea, and got a bunch of people killed for no reason. Oh, and it wasn't actually a total massacre. A score of women and children and even a couple of the defenders were allowed to leave at the end, apparently after they finally quit fighting.

[belzabubba333]

5. i dont find this surprising in the least

[Sunlei]

3. men sleep late around the world!

[badtoworse]

4. I think we should just celebrate why it's better to be a guy.