Celebrate International Women’s Day by demanding an International Men’s Day, refusing to Google

RE: “Maternity Wards”

‘Maternity wards’ at every hospital I’ve walked through are actually called “Obstetrics” or “OB”. The nurses sometimes use the shorthand of WW (short for “Women’s World”) among themselves. That shorthand will probably die a gradual death as more old nurses retire and younger nurses take over.

The only other department that might fit under the umbrella of “Maternity Ward” would be NICU, (pronounced nick-you), but that’s really more of a ‘babies in incubators’ floor.

http://www.whydontwehaveaninternationalmensday.com/

This made me laugh. “Fuckwomble” is my word of the day.

Happy Birthday Robert, and hallo Kupo.

@ tricyclist, yes indeedy. The men and women who work hard to address the issues men face as a class are going to be not the ones whining on the internet “What about the menz?” and “How come we don’t get a day?”

They’re too idle or self-satisfied to google it, so they certainly aren’t going to organise their own party, but at the same time sure as hell not to let us enjoy ours. Well, stuff ’em. Happy International Women’s Day to everyone who celebrates it.

I think an International Non-Binary Day would be a great idea, too.

About naming a Delivery Ward after Mary – I think creepy, indeed. After all, she gave birth in a stable, without ever having had sex, and – if the Pope is to be believed (and frankly, if you don’t believe the Pope when it comes to the subject of the baby Jesus’s tiny cranium passing along the Blessed Virgin’s birth canal, what can you believe?) Mary went through the whole process without any pain or groan.

Kind of an impossible standard there, no? I have no direct experience, but I gather it stings a bit.

@ vikki p

there will be a reference to the Virgin Mary somehow

If they were really trying they’d deck the maternity ward out like a stable.

They don’t exist because no man has yet to carry a baby to term and push it out of his urethra.

Trans people exist. :/

I got halfway through the “is there an international men’s day?” tweets and was groaning “stahp!!!” out loud. On the train :/
And that was just David’s list not the whole of twitter.
Happy birthday Robert 🙂

For those who didn’t know, NICU is the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I don’t know anyone who’s wanted to be there. 🙁

Also, pedantry alert: NO one pushes a baby out of their urethra! This is serious. If you think that’s how babies come into the world, you should go to remedial sex ed classes.

And you are probably having sex all wrong.

@Moggie – I didn’t find it creepy so much as weird, but then, I come from a long line of Anglican heretics, so I didn’t grow up with the whole Blessed Mother thing.

I did find the statue rather off-putting, especially since the plaster had broken off one of her hands, so the Virgin Mary’s beneficent gesture lost a little something.

New Game of Thrones trailer!!!

That is my International Women’s Day gift.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7a408e8yx1qm2bs4.gif

Way off topic. I know. I’M EXCITED OKAY!?

@ Alan

Funny you should say that, ‘cos around Christmas time, there did seem to be a bit more straw piled up around the statue….

I love all of the sort of hot babes pouting lusciously in their photos and tagging “What about Men’s Day?”

Because, you know, boys.

My fave labor & delivery tidbit is that when the PA announces a woman going into labor somewhere she might prefer not to be (like in the parking lot), they call out a code lavender.

So cute!

I’m glad I’m not the only Richard Herring fan (rhlstp!) in the comments here. He spends every women’s day replying to as many of these tweets as he can with the date of international men’s day. It’s one of those things that starts out funny, then gets tedious and finally gets really funny again.

Also, I would be fine with using international men’s day to highlight something like testicular cancer (OK, i accept there’s a non-binary issue there) or encourage men to share with each other about their mental health etc. Men do have specific problems and just because the patriarchy is vastly more oppressive for women,I can still care about men without losing sight of the big picture. A genuine men’s movement would tackle these issues too, bit as we all know, the people who profess to care about men’s issues don’t give a fig for anything that might benefit men at all.

@ scaly llama

NO one pushes a baby out of their urethra

Hyenas have a pretty unusual birth process.

Hah, I was looking at that list of people asking about men’s day, so I started replying to them with ‘Nov 19th’ and a link to the wikipedia page.

and then I come back and read your post a bit more, and
“I would feel remiss if I didn’t mention that there are some real party poopers on Twitter today, too. Like the guy who’s been responding to all those “why isn’t there an International Men’s Day” queries on Twitter with the boring answer that there is such a day, every November 19th.”

<_<; whoops

According to my Mr, “internacional man’s day” is a real and even important holiday in germany. They even get an off day at job. And its celebrated the way you would expect: they get ridiculously drunk, go to the streets en masse, break every thing up, make a lot of noise, and get into fights. Its basically a day off to celebrate toxic masculinity. I believe the same stupid thing would happen in the rest of the world if it belonged to the culture.
While women don’t get a day off and spend the day receiving roses, passive or agressive misogynistic comments, and “what about the men?!” comments.
But equality, amirite? We need a day to try to fight for our rights to walk around freely and not be treated like unpaid house/sex workers(while 0 shits are given), they need a day (or several) to fight for their right to get drunk and wreck shit up.

By the way, if anyone here is aware of my Mr’s quite “equalitarian”/” humanist” line of thought you may wonder what is his opinion on “women’s day”.
He didnt ask ” is there a man’s day?” because its very well celebrated in his country.
Instead he went into the next option and said “I don’t think men’s or women’s days are justified, because you are celebrating people for something that they simply ‘are’, and not an achievement”. The naivety of privileged people is so frustrating, but also fascinating. How can he think its all it is about?
Then I explained the importance to him and he understood and agreed. We didnt even fight!
He also agrees the ghostbusters trailer is freaking racist but he is still looking foward for the movie.
He also hates men’s day and doesnt go out to make a mess ^^
I have been really proud of him :3 Seems like he is really starting to open his mind and understanding. Best women’s day present ever ^^

And to clear up something, I am aware men (and testicular human beings as a whole) have unique problems too and am in favor of a day to acess them.

My fave labor & delivery tidbit is that when the PA announces a woman going into labor somewhere she might prefer not to be (like in the parking lot), they call out a code lavender.

At one of my local hospitals, they play the first few bars of “Rock-A-Bye Baby” over the PA system every time a baby is born. You know there’s a baby boom going on when you’re in the ER with a screwed-up knee and hear that like seven times over about three hours. 😉

@Nikki the Bluth Wannabe

I celebrated International Women’s Day by signing this: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/338/535/000/shut-down-pro-rape-supporter-roosh-valizadeshs-facebook-account-immediately/

Me too. Thanks!

@Robert
Happy birthday to you!

The trouble is that while International Men’s Day is a great opportunity to raise awareness of testicular cancer, unnecessary circumcision, stigma about mental health and so on, what these people actually use it for is whining about feminism, the same as every other day of the year. If the only examples I’d seen of grown men were those that I saw posting on Twitter, I wouldn’t think terribly highly of them as a gender.

And mister “I want a Paternity Ward” can have that when he has to force a living baby out of his genitals! I for one am happy doing neither.

Also, why did someone tweet at Buzzfeed to ask about International Men’s Day? Am I the only one who thinks that is weird?

They think Buzzfeed is feminist cause some feminists use it as platform to publish feminist texts.
They don’t usually understand how things works, you see. ANYTHING.

The paternity ward comment killed me. I hope he was being facetious.

They don’t exist because no man has yet to carry a baby to term and push it out of his urethra.

Trans men and non binary people do get pregnant, and should not have their identities ignored like that.
Even though, sadly, I really doubt they said this out of concern for trans people.

It seems like people are pulling this off every year, aren’t they? Well, this time they left me wondering whether there was some kind of International Non-Binary Day. The only thing I could find was this
Well, it’s from 2012, I’ve never heard of the person suggesting it before, and I don’t know what to think of it. I would love to have a day for everyone who does not fit in the binary, just as much as I would love Women’s/Men’s Day to be more trans inclusive. What do you think?
(Also, do you have some kind of introducing yourself tradition here? This is my first time commenting and I don’t want to be rude or anything)

Well, there IS a “trans awareness” day/month. At least in my country. It sadly is not too big outside of feminist circles. And tends to erase non binary trans.

@theladyinsomnia – That’s awesome 😀

(And katz’s joke was funny, too! I got busy explaining it and forgot to thank you.)

@Robert: HBD!
I share my birthday with the Girl Scouts, so I know that feel.

re: maternity wards: All of them I’ve visited and given birth in were called Labor & Delivery.

I thought the point of International Women’s Day is that traditional progressive holidays like May Day failed to give women’s issues adequate attention.

I am racking my brain here as the why there would be ANY NEED AT ALL for a “paternity ward”

Dude, it’s not there because YOU’RE NOT DOING ANYTHING!

The Paternity Ward thing reminds me of that post someone made complaining about (cis)women not having to take maternity tests.

At one of my local hospitals, they play the first few bars of “Rock-A-Bye Baby” over the PA system every time a baby is born. You know there’s a baby boom going on when you’re in the ER with a screwed-up knee and hear that like seven times over about three hours. 😉

One of my local hospitals plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and it sounds almost like a music box.

Wait, I thought there was an actual “Men’s Day”, and it was on April 1st, along with “white appreciation day” and “straight pride day”.

Off-topic:

As of today, both of the directors of the Matrix movies have come out as transgender women. Are the Red Pillers of Reddit going to start calling themselves something new, now that their name is hopelessly tainted with girl cooties?

@LindsayIrene
Oh, to be a fly on the wall when Paul Elam and his minions discuss this unlikely and unwelcome turn of events.

^ I’m still waiting for a reaction to that.

TRP’ers will probably deny their womanhood. :/

This is why I am for equity instead of perfect equality. Perfect equality is flawed. This explains it better than I can:

http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/equality-is-not-enough/

You’re welcome, Kat!

Well, now we can say pretty much for sure that the Republican voters have chosen Trump. And they hate Rubio.

According to my Mr, “internacional man’s day” is a real and even important holiday in germany. They even get an off day at job. And its celebrated the way you would expect: they get ridiculously drunk, go to the streets en masse, break every thing up, make a lot of noise, and get into fights. Its basically a day off to celebrate toxic masculinity.

In all my twenty years living in Germany, I’ve never heard of that 😀 Then again, I might have just missed it. There surely are parts of Germany where this is more likely to happen. Though your description of the celebrations rather fits the way Germans “celebrate” the 1st of May in some cities…

Breaking news: dumb-ass f**k-trumpets on the internet don’t understand history or privilege. Later today, the sky is blue and water is wet

But why isn’t there a hospital ward for healthy people? It’s discrimination.

I demand that hospital resources be split evenly between those who need them and those who don’t.

@Chiomara:
Congrats to Mr Chiomara for the progress he’s made! I’m very happy for both of you.

@IP:
It’s rather pathetic to see the establishment crawling back to Kasich, isn’t it? In retrospect, I wonder if Rubio ever had a chance, or whether he was another grow-and-fade wonder like Carson.

Hello.

I do want to see an international Non-Binary day

Is it not the Shutdown day ? Oh, wait, you do not speak of the binary number systems… (sorry for the bad joke).

> Social Justice Atheist
Indeed, this is interesting. Maybe they are complementary rather than exclusive : equality for abstract things (rights, as an example), equity for the actions/implementations of the equality.
As an example, equality would affect the right to access a particular school, equity would affect the help provided to pay the fees for this school (thus enforcing more the equality of right – which is different of an equality of treatment).
Is this a viable view ?

Have a nice day.

Arf, too slow to edit.

I just wanted to add as a side note that if a lot of men ignore the existence of the IMD, it also seems to me that a lot of women ignore the existence of the IWD. I correspond by mail with japanese women, and none of them were aware of the IWD. Maybe it lacks of publicity in certain parts of the world.

@occasional reader

Yep, that is exactly what I was getting at.

*sighs dramatically*

Maybe if they would look things up and check facts, BEFOREHAND, those oh so very logical sciencer/builders and creators of all important things in society *snorks trying to suppress laughter* wouldn’t take to the Internet to show their dumbass membership.

@ Chiomara

You are thinking of Father’s Day, I believe. And it is not a day off because of being Father’s Day, but because it is some church holiday. The celebrations are rather disgusting though, yes. :/

A day late and a [insert currency unit of choice] short (bloody time zones), but this is succinctly sublime: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/03/wheres-the-international-mens-day/

@Chiomara and Tahia
Yeah, it’s Father’s Day, and it’s always on the Ascension Day (which is always on a Thursday, so it’s a good holiday that can never be on a weekend).
It’s probably not a good way to celebrate the ascension of Jesus.

Next Women’s day we should all celebrate by committing acts of extreme misandry.

I will find the nicest man I can and I will tell him about a thing my boyfriend did that annoyed me. After I have done this, I will not have sex with that nice man.

Hahahahahaha MISANDRY!

@Damy , @Tahia and @Herbert
He lives in Dresden. And he calls it “men’s day”. Never referred to it as anything else for the 4 years we know each other. ._. His brother calls it that too.
Sorry if I said something wrong, ir maybe that’s just the way his family calls it. I honestly don’t know.

There is a phenomenon called ‘couvade’, in which a man experiences certain symptoms usually associated with pregnancy and childbirth. I found out about it in high school.

We were shown a remarkably explicit educational film about the birthing and delivery process. I was sufficiently moved to ask my mother how it had been for her. She assured me that pregnancy and childbirth had gone easily for her, and it had gotten easier each time. My dad, however, had morning sickness. She added that if she’d had to go through what some of her friends had, she would have stopped at two. As number six of seven, that was more disturbing to me than she may have realized.

Also, she lost a few pounds with every child, which I have been told is relatively uncommon.

Women try to get in on something some guys think they have exclusive right to (such as games**): “Noooo! Girls are trying to take our stuff!”

Women have something guys *assume* they don’t have (such as a ‘Day’): “Where’s ours??”

**Why is it always the fun stuff some think is only for them, as if women can’t like fun stuff…

Spare a thought for British Comedian Richard Herring, who tries in vain to educate some of these poor folk to the existence of International Men’s Day.

Also, International Men’s Day would be a great day for dudes to talk about saving other dudes from Toxic Hypermasculinity, and putting them back on the path to just being chill.