I was going to write up something today about International Men’s Day, the me-too what-about-the-menz holiday that’s so meaningless that even Men’s Rights activists can barely remember to celebrate it. Do we really need a day to “celebrate [the] achievements and contributions” of men? Don’t we get quite a lot of that already? Do we need a day given over to “highlighting the discrimination against [men]” as if this is really a thing?
But then I discovered that today was also World Toilet Day, and realized it was probably more worthwhile to promote this event, as the lack of toilets and proper sanitation — a widespread problem in parts of the developing world, particularly in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa — can have devastating public health consequences.
Some disturbing facts, from the UN, which I clipped from this CNN story:
- 2.5 billion people — one in three people in the world — do not have a toilet or access to sustainable sanitation
- Diarrheal diseases are the second most common cause of death in young children in developing countries
- They kill more than HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined
Learn more at the official website. Also, Al Jazeera has a useful infographic.
And just a note to the MRAs who have somehow concluded from this post that I am comparing men or men’s issues to toilets (!?), let me try to make my point very clear: I am contrasting a sharply focused activist campaign aimed at a very real problem — lack of toilets and proper sanitation in large parts of the developing world — with large consequences — disease and death, of adults and children alike — with a badly thought out International Men’s Day that seems largely driven by jealousy that “women get a day so why can’t we have one too.”
How halfassed is International Men’s Day? Here’s a screenshot of the International Men’s Day website’s “resources” page.
Generally speaking, you would expect a “resources” page to list facts and figures and possibly link to relevant other groups. All you get at the International Men’s Day site are some posters made from stock photos.
What I found on the site’s “about” page was much more troubling. The site was put online by a group called the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation, working with the founder of International Men’s Day, Dr Jerome Teelucksingh. The Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation, as I discovered with a bit of Googling, turns out to be a virulently homophobic and transphobic organization that is also behind a site called Gendermatters.com. A quasi-manifesto on the site titled 21 Reasons Why Gender Matters asserts, among other things, that:
Transsexuality signals a deceptively fierce disorder. Elective castration, mastectomy, hysterectomy, etc., are futile non-solutions. The cruel, permanent disfigurement of so-called gender reassignment is not the answer. Transsexuals need psychological and spiritual insight that frees them to celebrate the chromosomes they received at conception.
So, yeah, a halfassed men’s “day” that’s associated with transphobic assholes. Not exactly a winning combination.
Look, if you’re concerned about making a difference in the lives of men, pick the issue that matters most to you, and work on that. If you want to increase funding for prostate cancer research, work on that. If you want to raise money to help male victims of domestic violence, work on that. Actually do the hard work of activism. Don’t just have yourself a “day” and pretend that it means something.
EDIT: Rewrote part of the first paragraph and added all the stuff after the Al Jazeera link to clarify the point of this post, because clearly some people have missed the point entirely.
@ Alice
We the people state that it is the right of all internet commenters never to be mocked when they’re being ridiculous.
I meant internationally argenti. AIDs affects heteros majoritively.
Go ahead. While you’re at it, let David know that you need someone to follow you around proclaiming your opinions glorious, unassailable, and worth more than $5000/gallon ink.
Also, you’re right, industrial works too.
CassandraSays – Oh shi—
This domain and its contents have been seized by the US Department of Justice…
kitteh: “I’m LOLing because you’re screaming about being called a man, when Alice made it clear zie uses “dude” for anyone. I’m also LOLing because you promptly referred to me as “he,” which I’m not.
You’re blathering about censorship (protip: this isn’t the government, it’s a privately owned site, and the term doesn’t apply). You’re screaming about regulars and telling them to go away and carrying on like you have the ownership you’re quick to tell everyone else they don’t have. ”
Whats funny about internet sexism kitteh? Presuming me to be a guy by default dismissed female presence on internet forums and by extension female voices. But you wouldn’t care about that at all, being a man would you?
I never said that regulars cannot go away kitteh I wrote that just because you have been here for over a year does not give you more authority or voice than me. Writing things like this:
“Guess what, Moma Sita: I’ve been a regular here for a year or more; Cassandra and Argenti have been here longer, and Alice is a proven decent person. You’re losing your shit in a spectacular fashion, and you call them trolls?”
and
“Okay, Moma Sita, knock it off. You’re wearing out your welcome really fast with this ranting. You’re sounding like a sockpuppet now, blathering about “classic Cassandra” and going into a meltdown. My goodwill toward a newbie just evaporated, and I wasn’t going to comment further on this thread because I don’t feel qualified to talk about racism, never having experienced it and not necessarily seeing it as those who have, do.”
and by argenti
“You reall think you can come in here, spout shit, refuse to acknowledge you may have been out of line, and then tell people who’ve helped establish the culture of the blog to leave?”
shows you are under the delusion that you have some sort of authority to dismiss opinions as you see fit regardless of their value based on your seniority. All you are is a common internet bully.
Also, XD. I want to write a rendition of “Hurt”, but about how we’re somehow hurting someone’s feelings because we dared say “hey, you know, you’re both wrong and offensive, can you not?”.
Have you broken the news that you’re a man to Mr Kittehs yet, Kittehs?
Mona Sita, you’re fighting against imaginary oppressors. Please stop with the strawpeople, you’re going to starve horses that way.
Alright I’ll try a novel approach argenti, alice, Cassandra, how would I put forward a post that expresses the idea that when white women go abroad, for example, to India that have documented episodes of rape riots (like the type seen in Egypt) of white women under the presumption that they are more sexually permissive and promiscuous. That isn’t racist, that’s fact. Nothing about that says anything broadly about all of India (or wherever) or depicts certain peoples as savages (except for the rapists who are indeed savages but not because of their race or skin tone) its a sociological phenomena. Also what are you trying to prove about the AIDs issue? How the fuck do you get overheated because of this: ” Would you support an ‘international heterosexual day’ as well because heteros do suffer some specific problems such as AIDs? I would think it’d be problematic. ”
Its pretty spelled out, but I don’t think any of you except for kitteh decided to take the time or have the intelligence to fucking understand my post. And to comment about my post without reading or taking the time to understand it isn’t playing fair and delegitimizes your comments.
(read her post before commenting)
http://travelingwhilefemale.blogspot.com/2012/10/sexual-harassment-of-white-women-in.html
Cassandra,
I know kitteh is a guy I’ve read his posts and saw that he identified as a guy. I also am given the impression that argenti, Cassandra and alice have mental issues and perhaps this explains a few issues I’ve been dealing with which is why I’ve offered a novel approach above in order to be tolerant of differently abled peoples.
We definitely don’t have any white women here who’ve ever traveled to countries where white people aren’t the majority. Nope, not a one.
(Also, just out of curiosity, why is mine the only name that gets capitalized? Are Alice and Argenti un-people?)
Re: your comment on AIDS
1) you’re wrong, and I have a personal hatred for people misusing statistics
2) it’s personal, in some way or another, for a lot of us
3) did I mention that you’re wrong? I can’t seem to find exact mnumbers, which makes me seriously doubt that you have them, but everything I find says “AIDS rate soaring among MSM”
“regardless of their value”
Therein lies your problem. Your views have none.
Damnit, I missed a ”
That not-link should go to here — http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1007/S00331/survey-reveals-global-hiv-epidemic.htm
“I know kitteh is a guy I’ve read his posts and saw that he identified as a guy.”
Kitteh, when did you come out? Why was I not informed I’ve been misgendering you all this time?! Or, perhaps, Moma Sita is an idiot who doesn’t get that a bunch of people, including kitteh herself, have said that she’s not a guy.
“I also am given the impression that argenti, Cassandra and alice have mental issues and perhaps this explains a few issues I’ve been dealing with which is why I’ve offered a novel approach above in order to be tolerant of differently abled peoples.”
Oh fuck you and your condescending ableist bullshit.
Cassandra — yes, I am an un-person. I am either a carrot, or a zie creature, depending which troll you ask.
A carrot? I’m not remembering this.
I thought this was supposed to be about toilet day? Well it looks like that’s gone down the pan eh?
I’m sensing a lot of tension and ad hominem attacks going on in here. Careful, it will all descend into Godwin’s Law at this rate!
“Go ahead. While you’re at it, let David know that you need someone to follow you around proclaiming your opinions glorious, unassailable, and worth more than $5000/gallon ink”
Just wanted an honest debate alice and the ability to have my voice heard without it being drowned out by a viperous clique of asshats who think because they’ve been here longer they have the right to decide whose voice is and isn’t heard.
If I’m going to get comments about my post such as the ones below then I have a right to explain myself and be heard for issues of clarity and comprehension. This is especially pertinent when you are accusing me of being a racist. It is immature not to allow the poster to explain themselves nonetheless it is immature to accuse someone of racism if you have no proof other than a bunch of hyperbole. The whole point of my comment about white women, stereotypes and rape was to point out that to a certain degree there are specific issues a white person would face at least, while abroad and then I linked to certain episodes of racism against whites to demonstrate that these incidents would be seen as equal to any issues men face to make the point that if hyt did not see any issue with a mens day then why not a white day to disprove their claim that we’d need a mens day. I was identifying privilege. This is what a blog is for; debate and sharing diverse opinions and voices about a specific topic not for cliquish behavior, herb mentality and censorship by misrepresentation.
“Cassandra: You know how they are when they see a white woman. Why no, phrasing things that way isn’t dehumanizing at all!
Finding racism irritating is so immature.
argenti: “Those people”? You mean those savages who can’t control themselves around sexualized blondes?
Really, the AIDS bit could well have been just a error in wording, you fix it and move on. But rape riots because of how “they” react to blondes?
alice I’m just tired of all of the assumptions.
No, non-white people aren’t “savages”, “uncivilized”, “backward”, “unadvanced”, or inherently amoral until the white man came along.
I’m tired of people assuming that because I’m not white, that my race is backwards and unadvanced. Just, no.
alice Nope. It’s “white women are inherently submissive and pure, so a white woman getting raped is a crime against ALL OF SOCIETY”.
alice The fact that the implication is that if a white woman gets raped, it’s a black or Latino dude’s fault (Asian men are sexless, remember) and there’s a need for punishment? But no one cares if other races get raped because lolsavage?
cassandra Does anyone feel up to tackling the racist bullshit in the “omg blond women rape riots” part of that comment? Because I already got gently reprimanded for being too mean to this commenter last time she said something clueless.
alice AIDS is now something that only happens to straight people? What a fascinating new development
argenti I can’t deal with Moma Sita’s gripe about reverse racism after Du(m)b. I’m still fuming.”
(a note; its not “reverse racism” just racism and sexism, ie intersectionality)
Again argenti I wrote that I was referring to the international AIDs rate, not just the one in the U.S.
“1) you’re wrong, and I have a personal hatred for people misusing statistics”
Well I have a hatred for people who don’t have reading comprehension. Prove me that the AIDs rate isn’t larger for heteros INTERNATIONALLY than it is for homosexuals/bisexuals. Youre the one doing a strawman here argenti.
Please read my last goddamned link about INTERNATIONAL rates.
“A carrot? I’m not remembering this.”
Some troll went off about not caring if we’re men women or ungendered carrots. Sneak and I both decided that being a carrot sounded cool.
Argenti, what is the way to communicate that white women have been sexually targeted because they’re white in non-white countries (though not exclusively white/Black women have had this as well) based off of stereotypes regarding sexual permissiveness and promiscuity that have resulted in rape riots? Where is the racism in that-prove it. Act like a mature blogger and have a proper debate.
Can I be an eggplant? I like them better than carrots.
You know, I once expressed the fact that I was unable to imagine Sunshine Mary in crotchless panties. I got called out on my wording too, by CassandraSays even, for ageism.
You know what I did? I owned up to making a mistake and promptly apologized. I didn’t intend to be ageist, but my wording had unfortunate implications, and it was only when someone else pointed it out that I noticed it. I felt guilty, but it reminded me to check my wording to make sure I didn’t make the same mistake.
You know what I didn’t do? I didn’t accuse CassandraSays of censoring people. I didn’t tell zir that because I was new that I should have special privileges. I didn’t tell zir to get out, to shut up, or to stop being a bully for telling me I was wrong. I didn’t lecture zir on how I was a better feminist. And I didn’t threaten to email David and get him involved.
I owned up to my mistake, promptly apologized, CassandraSays accepted it, and we moved on.
Had you done the same, we might have moved on and discussed how to bring light to issues such as homelessness and mental health. You didn’t, so here we are now, at an impasse.
Maybe you should read your original comment and reevaluate it. You might even see why we were offended in the first place.
At the very least, try to see that comment from our actual perspectives. It’ll help.
argenti,
No, your link only looked at AIDs among gay populations. The article DID NOT say that worldwide gay people have more AIDS prevalence than heterosexuals.
“Myth: HIV/AIDS is a gay disease.
Reality: Anyone can be susceptible to HIV/AIDS, regardless of their sexual orientation. Everyone is at risk of getting HIV from blood-to-blood contact, sharing needles or unsafe sex. Worldwide, HIV is spread most often through heterosexual contact”
This did state exactly what I said. See argenti, if you’d applied a little critical thinking, honesty and reading comprehension you wouldn’t have made that major mistake.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=19039
General body shape — done. Quickie corset — done. Skirt — probably done, idk if I like the current angle. Outline of female steampunk figure? DONE! (Cassandra and I decided that steampunk is a nice cross between mechincal and not star trek)
Also, had you worded your inital comment that way in the first place, I wouldn’t have told you off for racism. Or had you apologized for the wording, it woould have ended right then and there.