What do men need? Well today, November 19th we get acknowledged with International Men’s Day. Not only is the media going beyond sex and sports as the believed primary concern of men, so are governments. With the United States and Europe recognizing men and our concerns we are given more legitimacy.
From – Men’s Daily, the core objectives of International Men’s Day:
- To promote positive male role models; not just movie stars and
sports men but common men who are living decent, honest lives.- To celebrate men’s positive contributions to society, community,
family, marriage, child care, and to the environment.- To focus on the health and wellbeing of men and boys; social,
emotional, physical and spiritual health.- To highlight discrimination against men; in areas of social
services, social attitudes and expectations, and law.- To improve gender relations and promote true gender equality; in
other words, eliminate misandry (the hatred of men) and end the gender war.
For decades, as men we often felt that our needs were secondary to those of our partner’s and our family. I know some of you might be thinking… no way, you have put your needs before everyone’s including the planet’s. It is true, men were the creators of much of what we are attempting to change. In spite of us being the ones who directed us to where we are today, we also suffer from our ancestor’s behaviors. We are ready to take responsibility for the past and create a new, different future.
Until recently our collective guilt about what ‘we did’ kept us from taking care of ourselves. Now we are waking up. In many ways, thanks to the women’s movement we realize that if we are going to change the planet we need to change ourselves. We need to take better care of ourselves. That alone is a huge step, to admit we need to change and want to change is new and scary for us.
What would you like to see changed around how men show up?
