International Men’s Day shouldn’t exist, nor should this website, nor – for that matter – should any of these special interest days or activist groups. Equality is a matter for all people and there are arenas where anyone and everyone is both under and over privileged in different ways.

A true equality movement should not be concerned with any single group’s equality, but with that of people overall. Sadly a great many activist groups don’t seem to be so much concerned with building up the places in which they have less rights or privileges, but rather with tearing down even the basic rights of others.

Sadly, in the world in which we do live even established rights need protecting and many that are taken for granted for some groups are not available for others, or are under threat. Despite being blamed for a great many of the problems of other groups and despite dogma that denies that sexism can be directed towards men, men face a great many problems. Sadly, some of the qualities that are considered masculine – forebearance, endurance, duty, honour, sacrifice – also prevent men speaking up about or pursuing these issues, or being attacked as being unmanly when they do.

Circumcision, education, imprisonment rates, sentencing, child custody, divorce settlements, reproductive rights, workplace deaths and injury, the draft, war, employment and unemployment issues, intimate partner violence, lack of domestic abuse shelters, child abuse, rape, mental health, lifespan, medical research disparity and many, many other serious issues. Even access to due process and presumption of innocence is under threat, for men, and already abrogated in a university setting.

There are other, more frivolous issues as well. We live in a world of slutwalks where women – rightfully – demand to be able to dress how they wish and celebrate their sexuality without judgement, but the self same people will destroy the victory day of an eminent scientist for celebrating his own in a very limited way with a rather tame shirt.

Men have lost a lot of the privileges of old, which is right and good. However they have not lost their responsibilities or the pressures of the ‘man’s role’ which has not been revised in the way the idea of ‘womanhood’ has. Little wonder then that there is talk of a crisis of masculinity.

Worse, men today are being held accountable for the ‘sins of the fathers’ in a peculiarly secular concept of ‘original sin’. Entirely innocent men living in today’s world of virtual, legal equality, being blamed and held responsible for things that happened deep in the past.

A very peculiar concept indeed.

Until we can move beyond these individual and competing fights for rights, we’ll never actually get true equality. Until we do though, people will have to continue to fight their own corner and – perhaps – being more reasonable and moderate is the only positive way forward.

Men deserve love, help, the same freedoms that others demand and deserve. Men aren’t villains. Men aren’t the problem.

PS: Please post something positive on the #internationalmensday tag, as its currently hijacked by hatred.