A call for men to celebrate International Men's Day raises deeper issues regarding gender equality and the lingering need to challenge male privilege, writes Melissa Marsden.
WALKLEY-AWARD WINNING speaker and writer Jane Caro called on men on Wednesday that it was ‘time to get active’ in championing International Men’s Day.
Sharing a post on social media platform LinkedIn, Caro said:
‘There is an International Men’s Day. It is the 19th of November. Why don’t we know about it? I don’t know. Gents, over to you. Time to get active.’
The International Men’s Day website claims it ‘celebrates worldwide the positive value men bring to the world, their families and communities worldwide. We highlight positive role models and raise awareness of men’s well-being’.
The original post, shared by BBC1 documentary presenter Elliott Rae, lists a number of areas where men suffer or are affected by various social conditions, including isolation, prostate cancer, premature death, suicide, as well as a lack of paid paternity leave.
In support of International Men’s Day, Rae said:
‘...by widening the conversation around gender equality, we get more men in the room showing up to break down the patriarchy, practise a positive form of masculinity and, in turn, becoming allies to women.’
This language draws on long-forgotten campaigns, including HeForShe, an initiative by the United Nations that invites ‘men and people of all genders to stand in solidarity with women to create a bold, visible and united force for gender equality’.
First launched in 2014 by actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador for Women Emma Watson, whose groundbreaking speech began a new conversation about including men in the quest for gender equality.
During the speech, Watson said that to end gender inequality, “we need everyone involved” and that change cannot be made “if only half the world is invited”.
Watson notes the effects of mental illness on young men who, due to false ideas around masculinity and femininity, have “been unable to ask for help”.
These ideas all have merit and, on the surface, provide a road map for ensuring gender equality for men and women.
Like Elliot Rae and Jane Caro, I have no doubt Watson had the best of intentions in launching the campaign and bringing attention to serious issues that have continued to plague men and society.
I also firmly believe that there is no point in teaching women to campaign for equality and not to shrink in the face of male privilege and abuse without teaching men to challenge the social structures that reward such privilege and make such reactions necessary.
However, these kinds of discussions cannot be viewed in isolation without also addressing the systematic failure to address the inequality that exists in the world actively perpetuated by men.
Whilst Rae’s argument is that by including more men, we can ‘break down the patriarchy’, history shows us that this can lead to men co-opting women’s spaces rather than standing beside them.
This year, the theme for International Men’s Day, ‘Positive Male Role Models’, has a particular potency. Whilst there are so many men worthy of this title (and we need more if society is to continue on a path towards gender equality), there have been too many stories of men who, rather than being positive role models, have further exacerbated gender-based tensions.
The fizzling out of the once influential #MeToo movement, as well as the re-election of Donald Trump as U.S. President, also demonstrate that rather than men coming to fight alongside women in the quest for gender equality (or as I prefer, gender equity), the campaign for men’s rights has done more to reinforce gender-based stereotypes and toxicities than remove them.
In 2018, a men’s rights rally held in Melbourne and organised by conservative YouTuber Sydney Watson caused a stir.
The rally was attended by Australian-Israeli far-Right political activist Avi Yemini, who said:
“I bloody love women. This is about empowering men, about giving men a voice.”
Again, I would like to reiterate that I am in no way aligning Jane Caro with such far-Right voices. However, the role such discussions have on broader discourses of gender equality must also be acknowledged.
Advocates of International Men’s Day neglect the fact that when women remain systematically marginalised, increasing men’s privilege does little to bridge the gap.
Whilst in an ideal world, men, women and, as I note were conveniently excluded from Caro’s post, people of gender diverse backgrounds, should all be treated equally by advancing men’s rights before breaking down the structures that marginalise women, we are only further increasing the privilege that perpetuates gender inequality.
Men can and do make positive contributions to society, and their struggles deserve to be treated seriously. However, by advancing International Men’s Day, when we are nowhere near breaking down the systems that oppress women, we may just be increasing male privilege, an issue yet to be remedied.
Melissa Marsden is a freelance journalist and PhD candidate at Curtin University. You can follow Melissa on Twitter @MelMarsden96, on Bluesky @melissamarsdenphd or via Melissa's website, Framing the Narrative.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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