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.
Argenti: to shit in a sandstorm one faces into the wind.
To pee one faces out of it.
pecunium – I run on the assumption that people are reasonable. Unrealistic, yes, but it keeps me sane.
kittehserf . . . that flight sounds much more horrible than my flight. At least my flight didn’t involve grandmothers throwing their grandchildren . . . yeeesh.
I meant to chime in on the earlier question about the vegan/vegetarian Thanksgiving menus . . . I am having to pre-Thanksgiving veggie dinners with other veggies – just came from a potluck for which I made vegan quiche with asparagus, beans, and walnuts.
And, after I have my wisdom tooth out . . .
Wednesday going to a veg restaurant with some friends – the restaurant does a “traditional” Thanksgiving menu with faux turkey (but I don’t know if I’ll actually order that).
Thursday itself with non-vegetarian family during which I will ignore the turkey but enjoy the mashed potatoes, green beans and cranberries.
Sounds delicious. 🙂
So… Moma Cita is a person who has been paying attention to Manboobz for a little while (knows some of the in jokes), but has a rage boner of the OD on Viagra and Cialis sort.
Which makes me think there is some animus. I also think it’s someone who has been away for a little bit, and didn’t expect to get the sort of response from people who weren’t the planned target of the attacks.
It’s all sort of pathetic, and feels like Boston, or perhaps the one we had from India, who came back a couple of times.
Is faux turkey decent stuff, grumpycat? Not that I’d be eating it (not keen on turkey anyway, and vegetarian alternatives or faux meat really aren’t a thing where I live – ie. my suburb) but I’m curious to know if it’s any good.
That flight to London would have sucked even if Ghastly Granny hadn’t been there. Our lovely cat Thomas was at the vet and it turned out he had malignant cancer. We didn’t even get to say goodbye to him, we had to give the okay from London, by fax, for him to be put to sleep.
Pecunium – yeah, she’d been posting here, not very often, but for a few weeks, under that name. Then came the “am I the only person who doesn’t care about rapists being raped” comment, which got plenty of pushback, and then she has this monumental meltdown.
I think she was hoping that we could all be made to turn on each other by criticizing some and praising others. The fact that the divide and conquer thing wasn’t going to work seems to have come as an unpleasant surprise.
Ah… I see Dave asked us to drop it. Sorry, it’s what I get for working my way forward.
Re dinners. We are going to the beloved’s parents. Which means turkey, and stuff. Kosher, so the flavors are different.
I may make some small mince pies for myself. I am partial to them; sadly the beloved is presently not allowed wheat, so I can’t make a pudding for Christmas (which will be done away as well). Mostly I’ve had trad American, though the odd Dobos torte has made it’s appearance.
Honestly faux turkey tastes no different from real turkey to me but it’s been so long since I had decent turkey I’m probably totally wrong about that.
I have no great nostalgia for the taste of turkey myself but I’ll eat soy “turkey” without complaint. I’ll also eat something else instead without complaint, though.
And that’s so sad about your kitty, kitteh. 🙁 It must have been terrible to be so far away from him at that time.
I recall the, “I don’t give a shit”. I half think that was deliberate. I’m pretty sure there is an underlying grudge, and they knew that would make people moderately antagonistic.
I also suspect they hoped to make the older regulars (the actual target of their ire) look like assholes, and hoped the newer members of the community would tell the older one’s to be a bit more tolerant.
That they didn’t understand the dynamics, well that’s probably why they were carrying a grudge.
Brooked, I think my name would have been capitalised out of perversity; since it’s not in my screen name.
And now I ought to try to sleep, as I have a full day at work tomorrow (retail, selling cookware, the crazy season starts tomorrow. It’s not “Black Friday” I dread, but “Freakout Wednesday” when all the people who have company on the way discover they’ve lost something (like the roasting pan), and MUST HAVE IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!
Did I just say it’s been so long since I had “decent” turkey?? LOL. What the heck was that adjective doing in my sentence. It’s been so long since I had TURKEY at all. Describing meat as “decent” is just a weird thing for me to do since meat is not something I even consider edible.
I think I need to go to bed.
Question. How do you guys prepare tofu?
I’ve been thinking of trying tofu again; the last time I tried, it was a disaster, but I want to learn how to cook it. Preferably, I’d want some vegetarian recipies, because I’m trying to eat healthier (plus, I want to have the tofu stand out).
I’m sorry about your kitty, kittehs. 🙁
It was, grumpycat. He came in the day he was meant to go to the cattery (we were going to be away about six weeks) with a whopping big lump on his neck. We thought it was an abscess – Tom was a burly boy with thick fur, so easy to miss. But it wasn’t, it was a tumour that had blown up really fast. Malignant, and in among the arteries, so there was nothing they could do to help him. He was only eight. That was the worst, with any of our kitties, and hurt the longest in memory.
[short advertising feature ahead!]
It was really only after I was in contact with Louis, and so with all the kitties who’ve passed over, that I could think of Tomtom without sadness.
Thomas – this doesn’t show what a big boy he was/is!
Alice, scrambled tofu is an easy dish to make and you have a lot of options with the vegetables and spices you want to use with it. Here is one recipe: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/tofurecipes/r/Easy-Tofu-Scramble.htm
Thomas is beautiful! I am glad you can think of him happily now. 🙂
Crazy season? Here I was just literally beaming with joy in the store today when I saw that it’s finally nut season! Mixed nuts for this mixed nut! (I have yet to meet a nut I didn’t like, though Brazilian nuts are a bit of work…but sooooo goooood)
As for how to answer nature when nature is throwing sand about, that makes entirely too much sense.
Kitteh — that sucks, big time.
In other news, I’m probably going to be one big bruise tomorrow. It’s dry, I’m itchy, and I have a bad habit of scratching myself bruised. ARGHHHH SO ITCHY!!
…it puts the lotion on its skin…
grumpycat – Mmmm! ^_^
Thanks, everyone!
He is a lovely boy. Sweet natured but does. not. do. cuddles (let alone laps). Which is probably just as well given his size!
Also, if anyone else is on an iDevice, does Safari crash on occassion when you load a page here? I was going to add a longer response, but then it crashed on me and I lost all of my work.
YES! Luckily I’ve had the mac out to work on the Borg anyways, so I just gave up trying.
Speaking of which, the footer is on hold until I stop trying to claw my skin off.