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.
Glastonbury causes cholera, y’all. It’s one of the great civil rights issues of our time.
(A friend of mine did develop a nasty infection once after going there, but it was her own fault for getting her eyebrow pierced a couple of days before she went and not thinking that maybe she should bring some sort of wipes/disinfectant with her to keep it clean in all that mud.)
Thank you Cassandra, I feel appropriately martyred. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that as a typical citizen of the US of A, the amount of time you have spent in any third world country is about 0. Don’t let that get in the way of your opinions though.
I mean, yes, outdoor events should have proper facilities and should guarantee that the event is safe for everyone, especially women and other people who may get victimized in chaotic situations. But the basic principle there is “people shouldn’t organize an event so large that they can’t supply its necessary infrastructure,” which is a bit less of a human rights issue than “people should have access to basic sanitation.”
And this:
Is pure bullshit. You know perfectly well that pretty much any house, apartment, or business in a city in a developed nation will have a functioning toilet somewhere on the premises. It’s just obnoxious and appropriative to take a real life-or-death issue and make it about how sometimes restrooms aren’t as clean as you want.
You don’t even realize on how many levels this comment fails.
You, on the other hand, have traveled extensively in the third world and come to the conclusion that sanitation is just as bad in major cities in the West, I take it?
I’m amazed by how many wankers are popping up in the toilet thread. I guess they really are in it for the shits.
Bummocks, eaten by the blockquotes monster.
And ninja’d
as a typical citizen of the US of A, the amount of time you have spent in any third world country is about
Is @cassandrasays a resident of the USA? Is zie typical? Has zie spent any time in the third world? You don’t know and you’re just pissing in the wind here.
None of that is relevant to the validity of zer opinion that (and I paraphrase here) you are an utter wanker with shit where your heart should be.
PS My emotions (which you are guessing at by my language) are mine own and not yours to command, sweetie. Fuck off.
@katz, my employer may be sending you a bill for the cleaning of coffee from my screen 😉
@katz
Depends. Many third world countries have good if primitive sanitation. Running water works much better than wiping your arse with paper, it depends on what happens afterwards. When I lived in Italy (a “developed” country) a number of years ago, cholera broke out in Naples. You couldn’t drink from the tap, and raw sewage emptied into Venitian canals.
Well, thank God we have such a seasoned world traveler here to tell us what the conditions are like in other countries.
And how does living in Italy qualify you to have an opinion on this, Warren?
Oh where’s pecunium when we need to know how to take a shit in a sandstorm! (*squirms all over the place* at least that you can maybe hold! but you’re definitely going to have to piss since those things last hours+ and owies)
Just want to say that it has been an eye-opener reading about World Toilet Day so thanks, David, for posting this. I’ve always seen (and supported) the other side of the coin (so the various organisations tackling the provision of clean and accessible water) but not realised that there were also organises tackling the source of contamination. /serious
@katz. As a seasoned traveller and kidney donor recipient, I can reliably (if depressingly) inform you that McDonalds have (usually) clean loos all over the world. A thumbs up for western capitalism!
Argenti, are you *actually* shitting in a sandstorm, or is it a hypothetical one?
Me? No. But pecunium spent time dealing with them while on active duty.
Warren — homework time! Go here — http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/EN_WHS2011_Full.pdf — skip to page 80ish. Note how all of 17 cases of cholera were reported in western countries (versus nearly 23k in the DRC alone)…now skip to the end with the footnotes and note that only two of them weren’t imported.
Two. Fucking two cases of cholera caught in western countries. Versus nearly 23,000 in just the DRC.
May you wipe your ass with poison ivy.
@titianblue
“And how does living in Italy qualify you to have an opinion on this, Warren?”
Living in Brazil, Thailand, Mauritania. And travelling to (add a shit load of places here).
Of course I could just be making this all up. But how would you know? This is the internet. The point still stands. Sanitation is always important. Everywhere.
As a seasoned traveller, I can reliably inform you that McDonalds have (usually clean) loos in all the weestern cities you are complaining about. But, strangely, not in the rural areas of the third world where the majority of the population afflicted by this problem live. Only in the major cities of countries of the third world (if at all). Strange that.
you really do have shit for brains, don’t you.
@David, for the love of god, ban me please!
And yet all you want to talk about is the inconvenience of rock festivals and 1st world cities. And so minimise the need for sanitation in third world countries.
My previous comment still stands.
This is the internet! Things are still true even if I just made them up!
@warren, just walk away. Noone here will complain.
He’s a recurring troll, isn’t he? Only they beg to be banned.
Sorry, Warren, you aren’t doing anything bannable, so until we get tired of poking you with sticks, you’ll have to resort to going away on your own.
“He’s a recurring troll, isn’t he? Only they beg to be banned.”
And probably that one since coming back YET AGAIN and then begging to be banned seems to be his thing lately.
“Living in Brazil,”
Oh, someone talking smack about a place I happen to know about. *cracks knuckles*
I can attest that lack of sanitation is a major problem even in the larger cities. You just have to oh, walk a bit out of the posh/tourist circuits and into the poor neighborhoods to notice. With about 100 million people lacking access to proper sewer systems, it’s a surprise you think Brazil is anywhere near a First World country on the sanitation department. Methinks your experience may have been a bit sheltered?