With International Men's Day soon upon us, it is so good to see the increasing momentum being given and help so much by Glen Poole and his team at The Men's Network who coordinate the day in the UK.
The UK website for Saturday sets out the activities available and as importantly there is a letter signed by over 60 organisiations "inviting the Government to consider placing a greater focus on the issues that men and boys face. We recognise that there are many male voices in parliament, but there are very few male or female voices highlighting the specific needs of men and boys in the UK."
This carries on the theme from the recent conference and is about a range of organisations acting sensibly and rationally together to really start to push the agenda so the government and others start to understand that equality means equality for men too. Let's hope it gets some coverage.
It also shows the strength in numbers of the organisations now supporting men and boys issues. 60 is probably not all but no one can say there are not groups out there. We need more but 60 is a good number.
It is also being done in a non-aggressive rabble-rousing way which makes it far more difficult to dismiss (especially when so many women are actually signing the letter). It is perhaps where former men's movements have failed because they have been too aggressive. Bearing in mind the government consults on strengthening women's voices but doesn't even want to listen to men's at all it makes it even harder to dismiss.
Another comment is about the balance and maturity being displayed especially when you compare it to groups such as the Fawcett Society, Respect UK, Women's Aid, Equalities and Human Rights Commission and the myriad of other groups. There is no sense of women-hating, no sense that women are bad and they should be ignored. There is a clear sense that we need a create a society that it is fair and equal to bother genders. Those organisations mentioned actively agitate to hate and do down men, either directly, or indirectly by pretending they don't exist.
An example of the above can be seen by the Fawcett Society's deliberate decision to hold their Don't Turn Back Time jamboree on the same day as International Men's Day. That is the type of juvenile, immature and pathetic behaviour you would expect from that organisation. We need to rise above their schoolgirl antics.
Let's all celebrate on Saturday - International Men's day.
Posted by Skimmington
PSjust by Googling I found this on the Guardian in March where they banned men from writing Comment is Free posts for International Women's Day - I bet they won't be making Saturday a men only day on Comment is Free!
It will certainly be interesting to see what happens on the Guardian's Comment if Free, though it's run by a sexist who studied gendner studies at Tom Martin's favourite University so not holding out too much hope.
Are we sure the Fawcett Society have deliberately chosen International Men's day for their event, if it's true then they really are the very lowest of the low.
In their defence I suppose there isn't a vast amount of coverage of International men's Day, though seeing as they claim to want equality for men an women I suppose they'd be 100% aware of it and have it down in their diaries.
What this proves is that either Fawcett are either incredibly stupid, or liars who don't' care about men, or misandrist who hate men so much then try to hijacks the only day of the year that is about men's equality.
Posted by: John Kimbe | Tuesday, 15 November 2011 at 01:23
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2061634/Cameron-calls-woman-assess-policies-bids-rescue-female-vote.html
Well this looks like a success for the fawcett Society et al. It seems no one was very interested that the earlier "victims" of the recession in the much bigger private sector didn't merit such attention.
However any government would run into trouble as the policies had effectifely made many women reliant on Gov. funds (tax payers).
Meanwhile a Judge demands more favours.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2061209/Women-given-priority-law-jobs-says-Britains-senior-judges.html
Of course the truth is men and women aren't separate classes. Many benefits are for children and families not women and both sexes earn and work in mutual support. As you sat the Letter and Conference take a much more mature approach than a juvenile "them and us".
Posted by: Groan | Tuesday, 15 November 2011 at 10:37
Cranking up for Don't turn back time.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/16/jobs-are-a-feminist-issue
Posted by: Groan | Thursday, 17 November 2011 at 17:11
The Guardian like to indulge themselves, not dissimilar to the way the BNP used to do the same thing. Except the BNP were lambasted for racism.
I like the suggestion in the Guardain comments that we bring in quotas to limit the number of women in the public secor in order to protect them against spending cuts in the future.
It seems that when women don't have power and piviledge they are discriminated against and so are in a worse position than men and deserve special treatment and when they DO have power and priviledge then they have more to lose and so are in a worse position than men and deserve special treatment.
Sound familiar ?
Posted by: Bob | Thursday, 17 November 2011 at 23:01