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.
Mona, are you going to address my post about why we found your initial comment racist, or are you going to go on tangents and call us mentally ill again?
@ hellkell
The only way the capitalization thing makes sense to me is if people aren’t capitalized in Moma Sita’s world, which makes me a place.
The important thing, though, is figuring out how to best use the CatSignal.
argenti:”“I read it more as heteros suffer problems such as AIDS, not that it’s specific to them (at least I hope I’m reading that right). Still, that’s one sentence and (except for that) I think Moma Sita makes a good point.””
The original post by kitteh: I think that was a wording glitch; I read it more as heteros suffer problems such as AIDS, not that it’s specific to them (at least I hope I’m reading that right). Still, that’s one sentence and I think Moma Sita makes a good point.
argenti you weasel, you added this “(except for that)” in. Anyone can click back about three pages and find the original post. You added that in there to make yourself out to be less of a fucking idiot than you actually are. Gawd you guys are such twits.
My mistake. It’s Moma; it’s hard to read the font used for names here. I apologize.
1 shot, 2 if we expand the viper one to any kind of dangerous animal, which I am.
katz – Be right back, I’m getting some juice.
(I think I should be thankful that I’m not risking alcohol poisoning since I’m under age.)
@ Alice
Do the nyms look sort of glowing too you? As in, a bit too bright to read easily? The contrast kind of hurts my eyes, but only on the text that’s on that line.
alice, I did. I asked you what you thought about my post that was racist. Even freemage admitted I was right, both in my stats of heterosexuals having the most worldwide AIDs rate (do you even know WHY I was mentioning that) and in stereotypes regarding white women while abroad that rapists use to justify assaulting them (did you know why I was mentioning it). You tell me what about my original posts are racists. I’ll repost both my posts, who I was replying to and if you have a question, act like a fucking adult and ask first before making a fucking judgement and going on a rant about racism.
2 shots. Aaaand finish your drink for the bit telling people to go back and read the original comment when she’s been failing at going back and reading this whole time.
Eh, I don’t want to be pass-out drunk this early in the day. I’m going to replace each shot with a thin mint.
(Obviously my scoring is a bit offset here because she keeps ninja’ing me before I can add up the score of each comment.)
This comment: 3 shots
No, you’re the one being a weasel. Argenti’s “except for that” clarified what I was saying. Everyone else, including me, maker of the original comment, knows that’s 1) what I said and 2) what Argenti meant. If your reading comprehension didn’t suck so badly you’d have grasped it.
This is so unfair – I need to get to bed early & I’m going to miss the meltdown. Again.
Thank goodness I don’t drink, or if I did, that it’s too early in the day! I’d have passed out by now.
kittehs – Juice! It tastes good, is a serving of fruit, and a small sip can make a large glass last quite a while. *nod*
(Offers titianblue coffee. Feminist coffee, even.)
” YOU KNOW in the real world you’d be completely shut out for issues of not being fair, having honest and mature dialog or even knowing what the fuck youre talking about?”
IMAX?
(what I was replying to)
hry,
As a feminist, I don’t necessarily see any problem with an International Men’s Day. Firstly, International Men’s Day was definitely not invented by MRAs in the Roosh/AVfM/Spearhead/Rope-of-Holy-Yoghurt sense. Secondly, MRAs are so marginalised, far from the mainstream and filled with crackpots that it doesn’t have to be tarred with their despicable misogynistic brush: the vast majority of people wouldn’t associate it with them even the teeniest bit with the internet nutcases. Thirdly (as no-one here needs pointing out to them) social issues faced by men don’t preclude those faced by women. If done right, I think it could be a positive thing, though I know that’s asking a lot of humanity.
hry,
Except white people have literally zero ways in which they have it worse. Men do disproportionately face a few serious issues, like suicide and homelessness, and it’s a mistake to not address these in a mainstream, public manner (which I think a Men’s Day could do, if done right), because otherwise you give batshit internet MRA woman-haters a few real issues to hide their extreme misogyny and bile behind – which they do.
Most importantly, I think a well-envisioned Men’s Day would shy away from any hint of claiming victimhood for males: something which some of the themes of the International Men’s Days have done, but others haven’t.
hry,
“Except white people have literally zero ways in which they have it worse. Men do disproportionately face a few serious issues, like suicide and homelessness”
Not necessarily. In many parts of the world especially blond white women are heavily objectified. They have had rape riots happen in places in which they’ve seen blond women. The blond woman is stereotyped in a lot of cultures as being the ubiquitous American and they stereotype American women as being very sexually permissive.
“Men do disproportionately face a few serious issues, like suicide and homelessness”
Women attempt suicide more often, men commit suicide more often. I don’t think we need to genderize homelessness and suicide. I think it would make sense to have a ‘suicide prevention day’ or ‘homelessness awareness day’ but not try and genderize it and just focus on the issue. If you don’t make it gender neutral than the specific issues that homeless women face (many are running away from domestic abuse and female soldiers are more likely to wind up homeless) will be overlooked if not female homelessness in general. Everywhere in the world except China the suicide rate is higher for men, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, ect. It is because they are more likely to use methods that have a low rate of intervention like shooting themselves as opposed to women who are more likely to use drugs which has a higher rate of intervention. So the stats on suicide are quit deceiving and you’d be missing the full story. Also ‘mens days’ would be ridiculous because it isn’t men who are the de-privileged in society’s around the world. Would you support a ‘heterosexual day’ as well because heteros do suffer some specific problems such as AIDs? I would think it’d be problematic. If you’re sitting in a café in Saudi Arabia on ‘mens day’ you’ve got to be rolling your eyes at the concept. White southern men committed suicide at a higher rate than black Americans but does that mean they need a white hetero mens day? You seem to have forgotten the issue of privilege.
Alice,
WTF Alice? How in the world did you misinterpret my post in such a jalopy manner? Yes, its true blond women are made out to be exotic in many countries and they have rape riots because of it. Your failure to take rape seriously is quite anti-feminist. Its called intersectionality -learn it and get off your self-righteous rocker. Race issues dont have to come at the expense of gender issues. Just because were talking about racism against a white person doesn’t even remotely mean I’m saying this: “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?” Did you just avoid reading my post so you can go on an unrelated rant to feel self-righteous? Yes, it happens and I have no idea why you’re being so small-minded about it. Also, check this out; its the 21st century not 1950, white people only make up 53% of the U.S. population, its not some giant monolith anymore and guess what; racism knows no colors! Yes I get that we still have white privilege but take it down a notch and actually comprehend what I’m writing about. Its like you only want to believe that white people are racists and in a non-white majority population those people don’t have their own racist peccadillos to contend with. Don’t censor these womens experiences to be PC and close-minded.
http://www.businessinsider.com/race-war-heats-up-at-wisconsin-state-fairwait-the-race-war-2011-8
http://travelingwhilefemale.blogspot.com/2012/10/sexual-harassment-of-white-women-in.html
(Ignore the 53% part I misread another source, apparently its more like 69-72% but the claim that racism can still happen to white people stands though it doesn’t mean that it results in the same loss of privilege that happens to non-whites on a national scale)
Moma: if we suck so hard, why the fuck are you still here? You really think you have something to offer, don’t you? Sorry, sweetie, you bring nothing to the table we haven’t seen before.
Momoa; do you wonder why there’s no white history month?
Now how does the post I wrote deserve accusations and interpretations like this:
cassandrasays 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.
cassandrasays 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?
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 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.
cassandra:AIDS is now something that only happens to straight people? What a fascinating new development.
argenti: “Those people”? You mean those savages who can’t control themselves around sexualized blondes?
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.
I still want to know what a “jalopy manner” is.
For real. I’ve heard “janky” but never “jalopy.”
Look, she’s replaying all her not-so-greatest hits. As if reposting them is gonna make it better.
Also, I know it’s a minor issue given how crap the content is, but that way of formatting comments is worthy of GeoCities.