Culture

Before You Shit On International Men’s Day, Take A Look At What It Stands For

We could use some positive male role models in 2018.

by Sam Langford  19 November 2018
International Men's Day this year is about finding positive male role models.

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Every time International Women’s Day rolls around, there’s the inevitable question: when’s International Men’s Day? Well, it’s today (along with World Toilet Day), but before you go and shit on it, it’s worth taking a look at what it stands for.

This year, the theme of International Men’s Day is “Positive Male Role Models”, something pretty sorely needed in 2018. “International Men’s Day encourages men to teach the boys in their lives the values, character and responsibilities of being a man” is how the website puts it. Founder Dr Jerome Teelucksingh calls the day “part of a global love revolution”, one that aims to “support the ongoing effort to improve lives, heal scarred hearts, seek solutions to social problems, mend troubled minds, reform the social outcasts and uplift the dysfunctional”.

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The day’s also aimed at raising awareness for men’s health and wellbeing, in particular, the impact of mental illness on men’s lives, encouraging men to see seeking help as a sign of strength, not weakness.

That’s a pretty important cause because last year approximately three-quarters of suicides in Australia were by men. In particular, Indigenous men are at risk, because the suicide rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is approximately double the suicide rate for non-Indigenous Australians.

Organisations like NACCHO (the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation) have been working to raise awareness of the toll suicide takes on Indigenous men all year round, but today, in particular, is a space to talk about the problem and share resources for men who are at risk.

The Black Dog Institute has also prepared self-help resources for men struggling with mental health problems, which you can find here.

So while sure, every International Men’s Day is marred by a handful of men’s rights activists making the day about men’s pride or whatever, the real message of today is about men supporting other men, sharing resources on how to be respectful, responsible, and healthy, and breaking down the ways toxic masculinity harms men too.

Part of that project involves talking about the ways ideas of masculinity limit men, and affirming men and boys who are gentle, caring, feminine, queer, and all kinds of other things men are subtly and unsubtly encouraged not to be.

So before you shit on International Men’s Day this year — or before you try to make International Men’s Day into an argument about which gender is more oppressed in 2018 — take a moment to look at what this day is intended for. It’s an opportunity to have some really meaningful conversations if we let it be.