Top 5 reasons why we need to celebrate the Men’s Day

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE – While the world celebrates Women’s Day with great pomp and celebrations, International Men’s Day, celebrated on November 19, passes off a little quietly. International Men’s Day is celebrated to raise awareness about men’s mental health. Each year, the world celebrates International Men’s Day to highlight the state of men’s mental health and address male suicide.

In this world full of #MeToo and when everyone is talking about women improvement. Men are nowhere, no one is talking about them and no one is ready to face the fact they there are men who are suffering problems be it be physical or mental. So let us know why we need to celebrate International Men’s Day.

1. It’s inclusive of all men and boys

Over the years, some people have equated International Men’s Day to holding a “White History Month” or a “Heterosexual Pride Day”, forgetting then men and boys of all races, sexualities and gender identities, hold up half the sky. Many of the issues that affect men and boys of all backgrounds, have a greater impact on Black and Asian males and men who identify as gay, bisexual and transgender.

2. It keeps angry men’s activists off the streets

Well that’s not entirely true. In fact, while the angriest of men’s rights activists defiantly refuse to support International Men’s Day in the UK because it is inclusive of everyone including feminists, you may encounter some men’s rights protestors on the street. The Men Do Complain campaign regularly uses the day to hit the streets and raise awareness of the rarely discussed issue of unnecessary male circumcision. And this year, there is a March for Family Law Reform and Father’s Equal Rights in London.

3. You can be a feminist and support IMD

Feminism has not had the happiest of relationships with IMD. It was supporters of International Women’s Day who first coined the bitchy riposte “every day is International Men’s Day” and for over a decade leading male feminists like the three Michaels (Flood, Kaufman and Kimmel) have opposed the day and called on people to boycott it.

4. Men do suicide

But, while we are having a little joke at their expense, we do believe that the message behind this day is important and we should continue to raise awareness of issues that face some men. For example, last year men made up 76% of suicides in the UK, many still feel stigmatised over mental health and emotional issues, and men continue to be reluctant to head to their GP with a medical problem.

5. Everyday isn’t International Men’s Day

So let’s get two things clear from the start. Firstly anyone who tells you that “Every day is International Men’s Day” is not a comic genius, we’ve heard it a million times before. Secondly, when 13 men a day suicide in the UK; when boys underperform girls at every stage of education; when one in five men die before the age of 65; when men are the main victims of both men’s violence and women’s violence; when dads of all backgrounds face a range of challenges from juggling work and family, to staying in their children’s lives if they are separated; and when the majority of the homeless, imprisoned and long-term unemployed are men, every day is not International Men’s Day.