Happy International Men’s Day

For the last two years, on 8th March (International Women’s Day), Richard Herring has spent the whole day replying to anyone on Twitter berating that there no is International Men’s Day, by telling them that there is, and that it falls on 19th November.

Some of the tweets are so aggressive and innately misogynistic, as they try to undermine International Women’s Day, by congratulating themselves for identifying, what they perceive to be sexism, in having a day that celebrates female empowerment and tries to combat sexual and domestic violence. Herring’s retweets and responses though are a strangely satisfying read. With the simple and effective phrase “19th November” used as a gratifying shut down button to those who close off their ears to reason, but shout the loudest.

If you read through the tweets, you’ll come across statements such as: “If there was an international men’s day the feminists would go nuts?” (direct quote, although I’ve added in the apostrophe). I don’t know why feminists are referred to like irate cartoon characters. I certainly didn’t take a strop around the living room and start pulling my hair out.

There is a current trend to paint feminists as rigorously militant and female. With terms like “feminazis”, found strewn across the internet, with willful misunderstanding of the fight for gender equality. But today is a wonderful day, International Men’s Day, where we can bring to the forefront the male feminists. Men, who are speaking out or creating work that project their feelings about gender equality. Men, who believe that they are equal to women and that women are equal to them.

So, of course, I would like to say Happy International Men’s Day to Richard Herring a.k.a Nineteenth-Of-November Man, for putting this day on the map. And I would like to extend that to all men who question gender roles in society, who question the patriarchy and who are pushing for gender equality, whether in large or small measures; today is for you.

And here is a short, slightly random, and by absolutely no means exhaustive list of men, who are trying to do just that:

Patrick Stewart is an English actor, who identifies himself as a feminist. He is a patron for Refuge and has spoken out against domestic violence, and bravely voiced his own experiences from childhood, when his father regularly beat his mother.

Joseph-Gordon Levitt is an American actor, who also runs the online collaborative production company HitRecord. He has spoken on chat shows about being a feminist and has been using HitRecord to get a dialogue going about feminism and what it really means.

Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor, writer and director, known for being stern and silent on-screen and playing the roles of cowboys. He has spoken out about sexual injustice and written and directed a western, ‘The Homesman’, released on Friday, which focuses on women over men and breaks away from many of the conventions within the genre.

Grayson Perry is an English artist known for his ceramic vases and for dressing up as his alter-ego Claire. Some of his work and recent Channel 4 TV series ‘Who Are You?’ considers identity and 21st century tribes and the potentially obstructive force to gender and societal equality, in the ‘Default Man’.

Nana Kofi Acquah is an African photographer who describes himself as a feminist. For one of his projects, he is attempting to change the narrative of women in Africa as victims and is portraying both their accomplishments and their resilience in the face of adversity.

As I say, this is far from an exhaustive list, just a little food for thought. Let me know who you would put on this list. Tweet me @jessmcfilm and use the hashtag #HappyIMD

And why not take a look at HeforShe this International Men’s Day, which is a movement for gender equality, addressing and encouraging men to stand beside women in speaking out and driving forward gender equality.